Shimla, January 12
Deep-rooted factionalism continues to worry the BJP and the Congress, the two main contenders for power in the state, even as the Chief Election Commission announced the date for the Assembly poll in the hill state.

In fact, the high commands of the two parties have been busy finding a workable solution to end the factional war, which can spell doom at the hustings. Infighting has assumed such alarming proportions that an impression has gone around that the party which will able to project a united image during electioneering will reach the winning post.

Interestingly, the central leadership of the two parties has come out with identical strategies to put up a façade of unity to cover up the “irreconcilable” differences between their warring top leaders in the state. The BJP high command took the lead in the matter and appointed Mr Shanta Kumar, Union Minister for Rural Development, an arch rival of Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal, the Chief Minister, as the head of the campaign committee. The differences between the leaders reached a flashpoint when Mr Shanta Kumar came out against the Chief Minister openly on the issue of delimitation of the Assembly and parliamentary constituencies, which was subsequently deferred.

Similarly, the Congress high command lost no time and made Mr Virbhadra Singh, the Congress Legislative Party leader who has been at loggerheads with Mrs Vidya Stokes ever since she became the PCC chief, as the chairman of the party’s campaign committee to forge unity in the party. The supporters of Mr Virbhadra Singh have been demanding that their leader should be projected as the Chief Minister to provide the party a cutting edge over the BJP. However, the high command adopted the middle path by making him spearhead the campaign.

The moot question is will this “patch work” solution on the poll eve work? The facile unity will be put to test during the distribution of party tickets soon. The two parties have already started the process of shortlisting party candidates. The Pradesh Congress Committee has received more than 500 applications for 68 seats. The state election committee is likely to meet on January 16 at New Delhi.

It will forward a panel for each seat to the high command. Prior to this, the observers appointed by the high command toured the state extensively to assess the winnability of various probable candidates and identification of poll issues. The final test of candidates will be approved by the central election committee towards the end of this month.

The BJP, on the other hand, did not invite applications and instead set up committees for each district to know the views of workers.

The committees have completed the visit of various districts and submitted the names of probable candidates to the state high command. At the same time, central leaders of the party have also been undertaking extensive tour of the state. Mr Sanjay Joshi, national general secretary (organisation), will return to Shimla after touring the state on January 16. Mr O.P. Kohli, national secretary, is also arriving here on the same day in connection with the selection of candidates and review the poll preparations. The meeting of party’s state election committee is likely to be held after January 16.

Meanwhile, Mr Ganesh Dut, spokesperson of the state BJP, has welcomed the decision of the central elections commission to hold election in the state on February 26 and said the party would go to the polls unitedly under the leadership of Prof Prem Kumar Dhumal.

He said besides the clean image of Professor Dhumal, the party would make the cordial centre-state relations, which helped Himachal Pradesh secure special central assistance of the main election issue.