Who will face the party’s axe in BJP in the coming weeks in Himachal Pradesh? With the four bypoll results leaving BJP ranks shocked and surprised both in the state and centre, this is a serious question doing the rounds within the ruling party.
Barring Monday’s cabinet meeting, where the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur maintained a brave face and asked his ministers to remain focused on the upcoming assembly polls, there are quite simmering voices about the need for a 'course correction.
Previously, Thakur had blamed the BJP's spectacular losses on Congress's focus on rising prices as a potent poll issue. The CM was, however, countered by the union minister for information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur price rise was not the only reason for the party's poor performance in the hill state.
"The party will analyse all the factors. Had price hike been a reason, how did the BJP win in states like Assam and Madhya Pradesh?" Anurag Thakur asked.
According to party insiders, growing disillusionment with sitting ministers and MLAs among voters and their disconnect with the party workers was a bigger factor behind the party's poll performance. Some of the ministers have failed miserably, not only in the departments that have performed poorly in the past four years but also in their own constituencies.
“Next year, if we go to the assembly elections with the same faces in the government, the Chief Minister is bound to realise how bad his decision to maintain a non-performing cabinet would be. The will reflect equally on him and his personal graph," a former BJP legislator told Outlook on condition of anonymity.
With the byelections being seen as a referendum on the government’s performance ahead of the assembly elections next year, the 4:0 rating could prove to be a disaster for the party, which is currently fighting anti-incumbency.
The party is also likely to bring to book party in-charges who were assigned the task of building. the organisation and mobilising the workers in booth (the panna-activists), instead of promoting their own image.
The party, however, has not given any indication if leadership change is also on its agenda.
There are chances that Jairam Thakur may stay for now till the high command makes up its mind about the future course of action for the party in Himachal.
The BJP's defeat has naturally come as a shot in the Congress’s arm which has won the by-poll even in absence of stalwarts like Virbhadra Singh, having earlier lost four Lok Sabha by huge margins beside the assembly bypolls in 2019.
The party is now pinning greater hopes on winning Shimla Municipal Corporation slated in April-May 2022 that could give the opposition a much clearer edge over the ruling BJP for the impending charge.
The declining vote share of the BJP – which had the highest ever ie 69 per cent in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, is a real warning signal. The incumbent team can’t deliver thus a change must. Denial of the ticket to Chetan Bragta, head of the BJP's IT cell in Jubbal-Kotkhai at the last moment, also had a demoralising impact not alone in the constituency but elsewhere also. The BJP 's candidate in Jubbal-Kotkhai even lost her security deposits --a real shocker for the national party.
Suggests as senior BJP leader “ few heads must roll to give a signal as how some of the active cadres got alienated –neither they worked, not voted in the poll”.
State’s Food and Supplies minister Rajinder Garg attributed the victory of Pratibha Singh, former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife to sympathy factor in Mandi parliamentary constituency. He was on denial mode vis-à-vis prices being a factor though only last week, the state government had cut down VAT on diesel and petrol .
What is more embarrassing for the BJP is the fact that BJP national president J P Nadda hails from Himachal Pradesh.
The bypoll reversals may trigger a greater debate within the high command about leadership change, a massive cabinet reshuffle, dropping of non-performing ministers, revamping of the state BJP set-up including replacing state BJP president Suresh Kashyap, two-party in charge and assigning top leaders like former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal key roles ahead of the 2022 assembly polls could be few correctional measures in the offing.
