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Shimla: The three-day working committee meeting of the BJP’s Himachal Pradesh unit, held from November 24 to 26, to introspect the reasons for the party’s defeat in last month’s by-polls in the state, has emerged from some interesting observations.
The reasons suggested for the defeat were discontent among party workers (mainly due to selection of wrong candidates), infighting Significant differences between the workers, and between the party and the Jai Ram Thakur-led government, resulted in the public not being made aware of the work done by the government, party sources said. told ThePrint,
Now, in an exclusive interview with ThePrint, Chief Minister Thakur has accepted overall responsibility for the defeat as head of government, but also claimed to have sympathy for former chief minister and Congress leader Virbhadra Singh, who died in July this year. had died in , worked in favor of the rival party.
Bypolls to three assembly seats – Jubbal Kotkhai, Fatehpur and Arki – and one Lok Sabha seat – Mandi – were held on October 30. B J P won not any of them.
“Many reasons have come to the fore for this defeat. The party is assessing all these. Being the chief minister of the state, I myself accept the overall responsibility for this defeat,” Thakur said.
Thakur has been criticized from several quarters since the defeat, but BJP national president JP Nadda is said to have uttered a word of support, who hails from the state. Sources said that on the last day of the meeting of the working committee, Nadda praised the work of the Himachal Chief Minister.
‘Overconfidence, now eyes open’ in party
While CM Thakur admitted that “overconfidence” was one of the reasons for the BJP’s defeat, he also cautioned the Congress and said the opposition party should remember that it will not always have the sympathy to back down.
“The workers felt that we will win quite comfortably because we are in power. But Congress benefited from Virbhadra Singh’s death and sympathy towards him ensured his victory,” he claimed.
Coming just a year before the upcoming 2022 assembly elections in the state, the bypoll’s defeat is seen by many within the party as a sign of growing public discontent against the government. The CM, however, dismissed such apprehensions, and said that the bypoll defeat instead acted as an “eye-opener” for the BJP ahead of the assembly elections, which are due in late 2022.
“We got a chance to be alert while there is still time,” Thakur said. “Assembly elections are just a year away and we will work towards identifying the shortcomings, whether at the level of the organization or the government. After that we will fight the elections with full force by removing the (shortcomings).
Emphasizing that the government will work proactively to achieve all the targets set at the beginning of its term, Thakur said that in the coming days, the state BJP will work to encourage party workers who are involved in the bypolls. Disappointed with the defeat of the party and will contest the upcoming elections. With full zeal and enthusiasm”.
Thakur also referred to some members of the party who had undermined the party’s prospects in the bypolls from within and asserted that such behavior would not be tolerated in future.
Read also: Road audits, monitoring of risk points important, experts say as landslides hit Himachal’s highways
vote for sympathy
Bypolls to all four seats were necessitated by the death of office bearers rather than resignations, so Thakur said the sympathy factor had played a big role.
“In Mandi (whose sitting MP, BJP’s Ram Swaroop Sharma, reportedly died by suicide), Virbhadra Singh’s wife Pratibha Singh was contesting the election. Virbhadra Singh was a big leader of the state, who has been a five-time MP and six-time CM. His wife has also been a two-time MP. People in all parts of his (erstwhile) princely state like Rampur, Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti voted for Congress out of sympathy. We lost Mandi by a meager margin of just one per cent votes.
“In Fatehpur, sitting Congress MLA Sujan Singh Pathania died in February and his son was contesting elections. Virbhadra Singh himself was an MLA from Arki. These seats were already with the Congress party. The sympathetic factor also worked in Jubbal-Kotkhai. We had that seat for the last two terms only. Last time also Narinder Bragta won this seat by a very small margin.
Despite the young leader likely to have benefited from sympathy after his father’s death in June, the BJP had denied ticket to Bragata’s son Chetan in Jubbal-Kotkhai. Chetan later contested the election as an independent candidate, which is said to have led to a split of votes and victory for Congress candidate Rohit Thakur. According to sources BJP page head (in charge of voter lists) and other party members worked for Chetan instead of BJP candidate Neelam Saraik.
Explaining the decision not to give ticket to Chetan Bragata, CM Thakur said: “The central high command has decided not to allot tickets in the name of dynasty/family politics. This was done not only with reference to Himachal, but was a message to the entire nation, that we respect our common workers and indulging in family politics will not be accepted at the national level. Since the results of these by-elections did not affect the existence of our government, he took such a decision to discourage dynasty politics. I will not comment on the decision taken by the high command. But it was a choice of special circumstances and here they (opposition) got the full benefit of sympathy.
Warning the Congress that it should not expect another victory like this (especially in the upcoming assembly elections) on the basis of “sympathy”, Thakur said, “We respect the mandate and are working towards rectifying our shortcomings.” But the way Congress is getting happy, it should understand that people vote once on the basis of sympathy. They don’t repeat it again and again. They should not live in any misunderstanding. Sympathy factor in general election. Will not work because in this election Congress had sought votes in the name of paying tribute to its late leaders.
‘Sabotage, indiscipline not tolerated’
Thakur had also warned against BJP members, who allegedly Failure Party’s prospects in the by-elections “While being part of the party, there is no room or scope for those who work to defeat the party. This will no longer be tolerated. We have also decided that indiscipline will not be tolerated at any cost. If someone is thinking that today they can oppose us and tomorrow they can find their place with us again, then it will not happen,” Thakur said.
Responding to a question whether the bypoll defeat has exposed the shortcomings of the BJP organisation, the Chief Minister said, “I would not like to comment on this, but sometimes such situations arise of their own accord. “
“Our party is based on cadre, and we are the largest party not only in India, but in the world. The party is made up of sweat of common workers. Ordinary workers of the party have become MPs, MLAs, Chief Ministers and Union Ministers. This is not a family based party. Therefore, the central leadership has taken the right steps to stop the family politics within the party.
Thakur also denied that the results reflected the separation between the government and the party. Wherever I went, people used to say that the government has performed very well. There was no dearth of development works,” Thakur said. “The performance of our government should not be judged only on the bypoll results. Even before this big leaders have lost by-elections. These bypolls were held under special circumstances (death of leaders), but in the past we have won elections continuously.
Roadmap for 5th year
Talking optimistic about the roadmap of the government and the state BJP for the future, Jai Ram Thakur said that the focus should be on the party cadre.
“Now the election year is about to begin. Our four years of rule will be completed on 27th December and we are entering a new year. We have to pay attention to party workers. After these defeats, they are a little disappointed. They are feeling a bit restless. They also understand that this should not have happened. But we have been alerted. Our main priority is to encourage them to be more alert and active.”
“As part of our governance, we will achieve all the targets in a time bound manner. All the projects which are pending are to be completed within the target time frame of five-six months. If the officials don’t follow this then strict action will be taken against them also.
Talking about the vision document of the government and whether the promises made at the beginning of its tenure were fulfilled, Thakur said, “The government has fulfilled most of the promises. In fact, we have achieved far beyond that. Last time we presented a vision document instead of a manifesto and we have worked hard to work beyond that.”
A cricket enthusiast known for his batting prowess, the Chief Minister, using the analogy of cricket, answered ThePrint’s query on his strategy for the upcoming assembly elections. He said, ‘There is no question of playing on the defensive. The government and the party will play on the front foot to keep the BJP in power.
Himachal has a history of changing Congress and BJP governments in successive elections, but Thakur is confident that his party will break the pattern.
“We have always fought elections with utmost seriousness. This time also we will fight with full zeal and enthusiasm. We have never taken any election lightly. We won the assembly elections in 2017, won again in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and won all the four seats with the highest number of votes. We won two by-elections apart from winning panchayat and municipal elections.
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
Read also: Himachal BJP Vice President Kripal Parmar resigns, said- ‘Party is being run like a dictatorship’
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