BJP set for clean sweep in Himachal Pradesh

SHIMLA: The “Modi wave” blew away disorganized Congress party in Himachal Pradesh and the ruling party registered a clean sweep by winning all four seats again with huge victory margin.
With 72.25% polling recorded in Himachal — the highest turnout in parliamentary polls in the state — the BJP candidates took the lead as soon as counting started and Congress candidates struggled to catch up.This is the first time in the history of Himachal Pradesh when a party has managed to register clean sweep in two consecutive parliamentary elections.
As per the earlier trends, BJP’s Hamirpur candidate Anurag Thakur was leading by 3,76,053 votes over Ram Lal Thakur of Congress; BJP’s Kangra candidate Kishan Kapoor was leading by a margin of 4,27,858 votes over Pawan Kajal of Congress; in Mandi, BJP’s Ramswaroop Sharma was leading by a margin of 3,67,354 votes over Aashray Sharma of Congress and Shimla BJP candidate Suresh Kashyap was leading by 3,23,401 votes over Col Dhani Ram Shandil of Congress.
The BJP’s landslide victory has come as a big boost for chief minister Jai Ram Thakur. Thakur travelled across the state to campaign for party candidates as Dhumal and Shanta Kumar mainly focused on Hamirpur and Kangra, respectively.
In Mandi, people largely voted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Thakur even when there was discontent against BJP candidate Ramswaroop Sharma for failing to ensure development of the constituency.
Congress tried to play a masterstroke by bringing former Union minister Sukh Ram back into party and giving ticket from Mandi to his grandson Aashray Sharma. The party was expecting to win this seat with the help of Sukh Ram and Virbhadra Singh, but it lost the gamble.
In Kangra, the Congress ignored senior leaders like G S Bali, Sudhir Sharma and Asha Kumari in favour of sitting MLA Pawan Kajal against BJP’s Kishan Kapoor.
In Hamirpur, Congress struggled to find a suitable candidate against three-time sitting MP Anurag Thakur. Intense infighting between groups led by Virbhadra and former state Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu became public at the time of ticket allotment. Virbhadra was demanding a ticket for Abhishek Rana, son of Sujanpur MLA Rajinder Singh Rana, who had defeated Prem Kumar Dhumal in 2017, but the Sukhu group was opposing his candidature.
After a prolonged tug-of-war, Congress high command announced candidature of Ram Lal Thakur, who had lost three elections from this seat. Even three-time BJP MP from Hamirpur Suresh Chandel, who left the BJP to join Congress just before the polls, failed to help the Congress in the constituency.
Voters in Sujanpur assembly constituency had defeated Dhumal, the chief ministerial face of BJP, in 2017. Learning from this defeat, Dhumal took the reins of the BJP campaign in Hamirpur to ensure his son Anurag Thakur’s victory.
In Shimla, BJP dropped its two-time MP Virender Kashyap to counter anti-incumbency especially as it had failed to fulfill promises like Scheduled Tribe status to Hatti community of Sirmaur district and increasing import duty on apple. It fielded Suresh Kashyap, MLA from Pachhad in Sirmaur district.