Elections 2022: Both Congress and BJP wary of ‘Dhumal factor’ in Himachal Pradesh

Prem Kumar Dhumal’s biggest success was in 1998 when he became the chief minister with the help of former Union communications and information technology minister Sukh Ram

“The BJP has sidelined former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal ji,” claimed Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu at village Sera in Nadaun assembly constituency in Hamirpur district of election-bound Himachal. Sukhu, a former Himachal Congress president, is the party’s campaign committee chairperson and candidate from Nadaun.

Prem Kumar Dhumal, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Himachal Pradesh, during an election rally in Hamirpur ahead of the state polls in 2017. (Anil Dayal/ HT File Photo)

On October 21, Dhumal’s son and Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur reminded voters of his father’s defeat in the 2017 assembly election from Sujanpur Dehra in Hamirpur district to BJP leader-turned-Congress candidate Rajender Rana.

“After the 2017 result, Dhumal ji , a former chief minister, did not sit at home, but worked as an ordinary BJP worker,” he said in an emotional speech at Sujanpur, trying to energise the party workers. In a choked voice, Thakur recalled that party workers were responsible for enduing his own victory four times from the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency and also made his father chief minister twice. “I am blessed to have such dedicated workers,” Thakur said.

The two statements show the importance of 78-year-old Dhumal, especially in the new Himachal districts of Hamirpur, Mandi, Una and Kangra, which send 35 MLAs to 68-member Himachal legislative assembly. These were the districts from where the BJP won the majority of 44 assembly seats in 2017 assembly election after Dhumal was declared as chief ministerial candidate by the then BJP national president and now union home minister Amit Shah a few days before the polling on November 9. Dhumal lost his own seat, though, and Jairam Thakur became first CM from Mandi district.

Sukhu accused the BJP of double standards . “Two BJP MLAs offered to resign in 2017 so that Dhumal ji can become CM but the BJP did not appoint a leader, who has lost as CM. In Uttarakhand, Dhami was appointed as CM even after he lost in election. It shows, the BJP does not follow its own principle,” Sukhu said.

Dhumal, who has been keenly watching the political developments in the state from his ancestral home in Samirpur village in Hamirpur district, distanced himself from the controversy. He added that the BJP made an ordinary worker like him chief minister even though he had won the assembly election for the first time in 1998.

Dhumal’s biggest success was in 1998 when he became the chief minister with the help of former Union communications and information technology minister Sukh Ram, who quit Congress and floated the Himachal Vikas Congress, which supported the BJP.

The BJP lost the 2003 assembly election but came back to power in 2007. Jagat Prakash Nadda, now BJP national president, was a minister in Dhumal’s 2007 cabinet. But Nadda soon moved to national politics as BJP general secretary in 2010. A year before the 2012 assembly election, senior BJP leader Maheshwar Singh floated a new political party, Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), with the tacit support of senior party leaders such as former chief minister Shanta Kumar, and accused the BJP led state government of rampant corruption. The Congress won the 2012 assembly polls despite Congress leader, Virbhadra Singh being forced to resign as union steel minister over corruption charges.

This time, although Dhumal himself said he has no desire to contest the polls again, some of his loyalists had demanded he do. “It (denying ticket too Dhumal) will have a bearing on the party’s aim of ‘Mission Repeat’ in the state. No one knows why he (Dhumal) was denied a ticket. The party had earlier said that age would not be considered as a criterion this time around,” said his loyalist and former MLA Inder Singh.

In Mandi’s Sarkaghat, Kamal Kishore, a small-time businessman, echoed the sentiment. “Dhumal ji did a lot of developmental work. We as BJP workers feel that he should have been given a ticket. Not giving him a ticket, means there is no respect for senior party leaders,” he said, sitting outside his shop covered by dust from trucks carrying cement from a nearby plant on the busy Shimla-Mandi highway.

More than 100 km away, in Hamirpur town, Panjak Bharti, remembered Dhumal as “the first chief minister from the district, spoke of his work, and described him as ‘the tallest leader here’.”

The BJP understands the significance of Dhumal in the new Himachal districts and has emphasised that both his sons — Anurag and Arun — are doing well. Anurag Thakur is a Union minister and Arun Dhumal was recently appointed as the secretary of BCCI, the powerful Indian cricket board. “We have done our best for Dhumal ji and have given him a lot of respect. He has also said that he was not unhappy with the party. Party president Nadda ji also met Dhumal ji in Delhi,” said a senior BJP leader in Palampur who asked not to be named.

Political expert and journalist Balbir Sharma said Dhumal is still a force to reckon with in the state BJP. He claimed some Dhumal loyalists are contesting as independents and have refused to withdraw their nomination, and could possibly play spoilers in the electoral contest.