With the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections approaching, the political heat in the state is increasing day by day. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday expelled five leaders from the party for the next six years for contesting independently against the party’s official candidate. The expulsion came after several senior leaders of the BJP’s Himachal unit were rebels and filed nominations independently for not getting tickets.
“The President of BJP in Himachal Pradesh Suresh Kashyap has expelled the primary membership of the following party workers for six years with immediate effect for freely contesting elections against authorized candidates,” a BJP statement said.
The list includes the names of five leaders: former Kinnaur MLA Tejwant Singh Negi; Former MLA from Ani Kishori Lal; Manohar Dhiman, former MLA from Indora; Himachal BJP Vice President from Fatehpur; KL Thakur, former MLA from Nalagarh.
This time BJP is bringing 21 new faces as election candidates who will try their luck in the elections to be held on November 12. The party’s candidates include five doctors and a retired IAS officer.
The rebellion within the BJP is intense in Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur’s home district Mandi, from where three BJP rebels did not withdraw their nominations on October 29, the last date for withdrawal of nominations.
After 11 candidates withdrew in Mandi, the ruling BJP is facing rebel candidates in three of the ten seats in the CM’s home district. At present, 67 candidates are in the fray in Mandi.
The rebel BJP candidates in the district are Gyan Chand from Nachan, Abhishek Thakur, son of former minister Roop Singh from Sundernagar and Parveen Sharma from Mandi.
The party has refused tickets to four sitting MLAs in Mandi, Jal Shakti Minister Mahendra Singh Thakur, MLAs Hira Lal (Karsog), Jawahar Thakur (Darang), and Colonel Inder Singh (Sarkaghat).
The action against the five leaders seems to be a start with several BJP workers fighting against the official candidate. BJP national president JP Nadda said that appropriate action will be taken against all such party members.
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