Congress soars in Queen of Hills

The Congress on Thursday snatched Himachal Pradesh from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), marking the first assembly election victory for the beleaguered party in nearly four years that was earned on the back of a committed local leadership and a grassroots campaign.

The Congress on Thursday snatched Himachal Pradesh from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), marking the first assembly election victory for the beleaguered party in nearly four years that was earned on the back of a committed local leadership and a grassroots campaign.

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Congress President Pratibha Singh being congratulated by supporters after the party's victory in the State Assembly elections, in Shimla, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. (PTI Photo)(PTI12_09_2022_000061B)(PTI)

The Congress won 40 of the state’s 68 seats, up 21 from its 2017 tally, while the BJP won 25. In terms of vote share, however, the election was much closer, with less than one percentage point — translating to around 38,000 votes — separating the two parties.

The victory keeps alive the hill state’s three-decade-old tradition of voting out incumbents and will come as a disappointment to the BJP, which had broken a similar political custom in neighbouring Uttarakhand last year but was undone this time by anti-incumbency, factionalism and anger among key groups such as government employees and apple growers.

“Heartfelt thanks to the people of Himachal Pradesh for this decisive victory. Hearty congratulations to all Congress workers and leaders. Your hard work and dedication are the real deservers of the best wishes for this victory,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which made an initial flourish but was largely missing from the campaign trail, won no seats.

The Congress ran a quiet campaign shorn of fireworks but the focus on local issues and grassroots leaders appears to have worked in a state where margins are slim and local dynamics assume importance. With Himachal, the Congress is in power now in three states on its own and also marks a rare victory for the party in a direct contest against the BJP.

“The people were fed up with the problems of inflation, GST and unemployment. We promised them, that we will resolve their problems. I can even say that many people have voted for us across the parties because the late Virbhadra Singh not just used to work for Congress but for the whole state,” state Congress president Pratibha Singh said.

“It is a very emotional moment for me as I can see the same kind of support from people as it was for the late Virbhadra Singh,” she said.

For chief minister Jairam Thakur, the big electoral relief was the party’s performance in his home district of Mandi — winning nine of the 10 seats — the best performance in any of the 12 districts of the state. Thakur won the Seraj assembly seat for the sixth time with a margin of 38,184 votes, the highest for any candidate in the state. But seven of his 10 cabinet colleagues lost their elections.

Conceding defeat, Thakur said, “I will tender my resignation to the Governor in a short while from now.”

The Congress’s best results came from the swing district of Kangra, the state’s largest, where it won 10 of the 15 seats. Since the 1960s, the party winning Kangra has formed the government in the state.

In the apple belt, the Congress won 12 of the 17 seats. There was reportedly a lot of resentment over increase in input costs and falling selling price of the produce in the region, with the farmers seeking minimum selling price like in Kashmir.

In Bilaspur district, home to BJP chief JP Nadda, the Congress and the BJP both won two seats each.

In Hamirpur district, home to BJP stalwart Prem Kumar Dhumal and Union minister Anurag Thakur, the BJP drew a blank with the Congress winning four seats and an Independent candidate registering a win.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who extensively campaigned in Himachal, said, “This victory is the victory of the resolution of the people of Himachal for the issues and progress.”

Simmering resentment among government employees over the old pension scheme — which guarantees more benefits as compared to the new plan — and paying pay commission arrears, rising input costs and low selling price of apples because of imported apples and high food inflation helped the BJP.

The failure of the BJP to manage its rebel candidates in 21 constituencies and local anti-incumbency damaged the party in at least 12 seats. For the Congress, the rebel problem was limited to only four constituencies.

The BJP tried to make the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, uniform civil code and nullification of Article 370 major electoral issues, while the Congress focused on inflation and unemployment.

The next big challenge for the Congress is to finalise its chief ministerial candidate. The party did not declare its chief ministerial candidate and Himachal Congress unit chief, Pratibha Singh, who is also the member of Parliament from Mandi, was the face of the campaign. Congress leaders said the high command will decide on the chief minister. Apart from Singh, former state Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly, Mukesh Agnihotri, are other contenders for the top post. Sukhu won from Nadaun and Agnihotri from Haroli. Pratibha Singh did not contest.

As the day progressed, the Congress flew in Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to Shimla to safeguard the MLAs. The Congress has asked its MLAs to reach Chandigarh, from where they may be taken to Raipur till the leadership issue is settled. “We don’t want to take any chances,” said a senior Congress leader in Shimla aware of the developments.

In the BJP, except chief minister Thakur and transport minister Bikram Thakur, all other cabinet ministers lost. Education minister Suresh Bhardwaj lost from Kasumpti, Rakesh Pathania from Fatehpur, Sarvesh Thakur from Shahpur and education minister Rajiv Saizal from Doon. Other prominent BJP leaders who lost were former assembly speaker Rajeev Bindal from Nahan and Rajat Thakur, son of horticulture minister Mahender Singh Thakur, from Dharampur.

Thakur said the party will analyse reasons for the loss and take corrective measures. “We accept the people’s verdict,” he added.

Political expert Harish Thakur, said that the results showed that there was not a huge anti-incumbency against the BJP in the state and the party lost due to “self-defeating” organisational management.

“The denial of tickets to 11 sitting MLAs, shuffling of constituencies of two ministers and poor rebel management impacted the BJP,” he said. For Congress, he said, the promise to implement old pension scheme, scrapping of Agnipath and providing relief from inflation worked.