SHIMLA: The Aam Aadmi Party’s victory in Punjab has changed political equations in Himachal Pradesh and made it a serious challenger to the ruling BJP, while an unresolved leadership issue forces the opposition Congress to lie low.
BJP national president J P Nadda, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, and Union minister Anurag Thakur have gone active to woo the voters before the coming assembly elections, while AAP’s central team is camping in the state to prepare ground for Arvind Kejriwal’s April 23 public rally in Kangra after the April 6 roadshow in Mandi. No one from the Gandhi family has turned up to charge up the Congress cadre.
Till the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP and the Congress were the only contenders for Himachal Pradesh, and now AAP has pitched itself as the third option to garner the negative vote against both parties. AAP claims to have added 3 lakh members from the state and hopes to build momentum with Kejriwal’s rally. The BJP has stopped talking about the Congress and started countering AAP. BJP president Nadda already has announced Jai Ram Thakur as chief ministerial candidate, while the Congress is in search of a face. This delay might hurt the party. AAP entered the state’s electoral politics with the Mandi roadshow of Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann. The public response alerted the BJP and the Congress and compelled Nadda to launch the unofficial campaign with a counter-roadshow in Shimla on April 9.
Nadda will hold a roadshow at Nagrota Bagwan in Kangra on April 22, a day before Kejriwal’s rally at Shahpur’s Chambi ground in Kangra on April 23. The Congress reply is just statements from the local leadership.
The state Congress has a leadership vacuum after 40 years due to the death of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh. Those are big shoes to fill. Last year, the Congress won the byelections for the Mandi parliamentary seat and the assembly seats of Jubbal-Kotkhai, Arki, and Fatehpur but the vote was a tribute to Virbhadra Singh, which won’t be repeated. The state Congress is a divide house. The Virbhadra group is in a power struggle with the other camps, while the silence of the party high command has only encouraged this factionalism.
