Sirmaur, the home district of Himachal Pradesh’s founder Chief Minister Yashwant Singh Parmar, is ironically a picture of ‘political neglect’.
The first CM’s village, Chunalag, near Bagthan in Sirmaur, saw road many years after his death in 1981. The road is still ill-maintained and Sirmaur is the most backward area in Himachal even today.
Parmar became HP CM four times in 1952, 1963, 1967 and 1972 and Himachal got statehood during his tenure as Chief Minister on 25 January, 1971.
Referred as ‘Himachal Nirmata’, he is much lauded for his vision for the overall development of the hill state.
His home turf visibly defies what he is remembered for. But this doesn’t discourage the people of Sirmaur from taking pride in his stature.
“He was not like the present day politicians who concentrate only on their own constituencies and ignore rest of the areas. He focussed on the entire state as a true leader, sometimes at the cost of his own area,” said some old voters in Sirmaur.
They blame the successive governments for ignoring the area represented by the founder CM.
The district comprises of five Assembly segments — Nahan, Renuka, Pachhad, Paonta Sahib and Shillai.
Three of them- Renuka (reserved), Pachhad (reserved), Shillai and parts of Paonta Sahib- have extremely tough conditions and are poverty ridden.
The Trans Giri area, which houses 2.5 lakh people in 127 Panchayats, is worse off with negligible development in terms of roads, education, health, employment and even agriculture. A common issue in Renuka, Shillai and parts of Pachhad and Paonta since many polls is the demand for tribal status for the people, which the politicians promise every time, but make little effort for the complex process.
This is perhaps one reason that the electorate in Sirmaur, who has shown loyalty for personalities — mostly from Congress for long — has been making it tough for politicians in the polls.
At present, three Assembly segments in Sirmaur have BJP MLAs, one segment is represented by Congress, while one has an Independent MLA.
Shillai Assembly constituency that houses one of the most backward sub-divisions in the country had elected a BJP MLA in 2012 polls, defeating four-time Congress MLA Harshwardhan Chauhan. Same was true of Pachhad, where the people defeated former Speaker Gangu Ram Musafir to elect a novice.
The two constituencies will be witness to neck-to-neck contest between the same opponents, with people evaluating their leaders on performance.
In Renuka, the BJP rebel has queered the pitch for official party nominee, although the sitting Congress MLA, Vinay Kumar, too has a declining popularity.
Nahan Assembly segment had elected former BJP minister Rajeev Bindal in the last election, defeating five-time Congress MLA and Parmar’s son, Kush Parmar.
Bindal won despite being an outsider. He had shifted from Solan. This time even Kush Parmar’s son, Chetan Parmar, has joined the BJP in Nahan.
“Earlier, the people of Sirmaur voted for personalities and were taken for granted. Now they evaluate the candidates on issues and performance, which is a good sign,” said RK Sharma, a local in Nahan.