Cong, BJP will have to work industriously to prove mettle in HP: Sources

Shimla, Dec 11 – With Sukhvinder Singh Sukhoo, the newly elected MLA from Nadaun of Hamirpur district taking over the reins of the state amid cheers in the Congress camp, the onus now lies on the BJP and Congress party leaders to prove their mettle in the coming five years.
In the recently concluded elections, the Congress party won 40 seats, BJP 25 and the Independent three seats.
Since the margin of votes between the two parties is less than one per cent, it will be a challenging task ahead for the new Chief Minister and his team to go ahead with the task of ruling the state which is already facing a huge financial crisis and many pro-people freebies have already been announced by the Congress party to the people mainly, the re-introduction of Old pension scheme for the state government employees; monthly pension to all women in the state; lakhs of jobs to the unemployed youth and checking of rising trend of prices among others.
It will be a thing of noting what the new government does in the first week of its taking over for the welfare of the people and if it announces the already announced doles to the people, the Congress party may go ahead in managing the affairs of the state in a befitting manner.
The party leadership especially those in power will have also to unite its flock as people of the upper hilly areas of the state is unhappy over the denying of a Chief Ministerial berth to Pratibha Singh, wife of former Chief Minister, Late Vir Bhadra Singh. It will be a daunting task before the new Chief Minister to manage people of these areas who always remained loyal to the Congress party.
However, there is a feeling of happiness among the people of lower hilly areas of the state, especially in the districts of Hamirpur, Una and Kangra where the top seat of power has once again reached them.
It is the fifth time a Chief Minister has become from lower Himachal Pradesh. While this seat was managed by Shanta Kumar of Kangra district for two terms, PK Dhumal of Hamirpur also worked as the Chief Minister for the two terms and now another Hamirpuri Sukhvinder Singh Sukhoo from the lower hill has been assigned duty to work as the Chief Minister and to nurse the grievances of the people who felt ignored earlier.
On other hand, while Congress leaders and workers are in a jubilant mood, the BJP leadership and its grass-root workers are feeling unhappy and disillusioned with the defeat of their candidates. BJP workers feel that had the party’s high command given tickets to the right persons, this situation could have been averted.
They say that the party leadership could not understand the feelings of the state government employees and dug its own grave by denying them their rights, especially the grant of the old pension scheme. It was the OPS( Old pension scheme) that led to the defeat of the BJP on about twenty seats of the state.
One of them Ramel Singh said during its government, the BJP leaders didn’t listen to them as a result majority of people voted against the party and their votes went either to independents or the Congress people.
The party has to work hard in the Hamirpur, Kangra and Shimla Lok sabha seats where it faced its worst rout.
Only on Mandi’s seat, the party, performance was excellent and it can claim that it is in safe hands.
In the Hamirpur Parliamentary seat, where there are three MPs, namely JP Nadda and Prof. Sikandar Kumar Rajya Sabha) and Anurag Thakur from Lok sabha, the party would win only five out of seventeen assembly seats and it was one of the worst defeats of the party.
Party workers now feel that the way, its leadership worked and ignored the people including them; it will be difficult for the party to win all four Lok Sabha seats from the state on the 2019 pattern. They say that this is not the defeat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but the defeat of the local leadership.
There are reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister, Amit Shah and All India party President, JP Nadda had a detailed talk in New Delhi about the causes that led to the defeat of party candidates in Himachal Pradesh.
Sources in the BJP say the state unit of the party can be revamped and new and energetic faces can be added to the organization so that they may work in coordination with the cadre and the people to work for winning all four Lok Sabha seats from the state in 2024 elections.
What lies ahead is a million-dollar question but one thing is sure both parties have to work hard in case they want to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and to prove that only a two-party system works in the state and there is no question of the emergence of any other party in the state.