Himachal: BJP draws up fresh strategy, may field former Independents in bypolls

After Congress’s victory in the assembly bypolls seemingly thwarted its plans to overthrow chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party Legislature Party (BJPLP) drew up a fresh strategy to counter Congress government attacks and chalked plans for the recently announced bypolls too – Hamirpur, Dehra and in Nalagarh. BJP has unanimously decided to field the three independents in the bypolls.

Former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur presided over the meeting at Himachal Pradesh-run Circuit House –The Wily’s Park. Barring few, all BJP legislators were present in the meeting that nearly lasted three hours. State BJP chief Rajiv Bindal was also present.

BJP also discussed about the recent bypolls where they fielded all six Congress rebels but were able to grab only two seats--Dharamshala and Barsar.

Chief minister Sukhu had built up his narrative on BJP’s attempts to destabilise his government by using unfair means. Many of the BJP legislators were vocal that the BJP leaders could not effectively counter the Congress rhetoric in the assembly bypolls.

The details of the upcoming bypolls and strategies to counter the Congress campaign were also discussed. There was unanimity among the BJP legislators to allocate tickets to the three Independents– Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur, Hoshiyar Singh from Dehra and KL Thakur from Nalagarh who resigned from the Vidhan Sabha on March 22 and joined BJP the next day on Delhi.

Critising the Congress government, former CM Jai Ram Thakur said, “Now the code of conduct has been lifted. Therefore, there is no ban on any development work being done by the government. Ever since the Congress came to power, all development work has come to a halt.

He also said that water crisis is deepening across the state. Everyday, there are reports of water supply being disrupted. Due to this common people are facing problems. The government should work seriously and take effective steps to ensure that people get regular water supply.

“The party has unanimously decided to field the former three Independents as its candidates for the upcoming bypolls,” MLA Randhir Sharma said.

Giving information about the meeting, Sharma added that two resolutions were passed in the legislative party in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was congratulated for becoming the PM for the third time and BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda for becoming the Union minister for the second time. In the second resolution, gratitude was also expressed to the BJP workers for the way the Bharatiya Janata Party won in 61 assembly constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections.

Randhir Sharma said that the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and 6 byelections were also reviewed in the meeting and the strategy for the upcoming three byelections was also decided.