Bypoll outcome to make BJP tread cautiously

Ambika Sharma

Solan, June 5

With voters rejecting most turncoats in the Assembly byelection, the BJP will have to tread cautiously while choosing a candidate for the Nalagarh bypoll.

The seat had fallen vacant after Independent MLA KL Thakur resigned and joined the BJP in March. He, along with two other Independent MLAs, had supported the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha poll, despite having pledged support to the Congress. His resignation was accepted by the Speaker on June 3, paving way for the byelection.

The saffron party’s experiment to give a turncoat a chance in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha election, after ignoring its well-entrenched leader in Nalagarh has already cost the party dear. The BJP lost this seat where its official candidate finished a poor third.

KL Thakur is a BJP rebel, who was suspended from the party in 2022, after he contested as Independent, following denial of a ticket. However, he had won with a thumping majority by polling 33,427 votes and had secured a margin of 13,264 from the Congress, which had fared second. The BJP’s official candidate Lakhwinder Rana had finished third with 17,273 votes. Ignoring Thakur’s claim, the BJP had preferred turncoat Lakhwinder Rana, who was the sitting Congress MLA. Rana had joined the BJP weeks before the Assemblyelection of 2022. The mistake proved dear to the BJP as Rana failed to win. The party lost a winning seat though its leaders thought they had secured a trump card by poaching a sitting Congress MLA. The BJP had to take back KL Thakur after he supported the party in the Rajya Sabha election in March.

It remains to be seen if the BJP will chose KL Thakur as its candidate now. The BJP has stirred a hornet’s nest by taking back Rana whose supporters do not see eye to eye with the Thakur. Their animosity was visible in the party meeting held ahead of the Lok Sabha poll. Nalagarh had registered the highest margin of 39,970 votes in the state in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The margin slipped to 15,164 in this election, hinting towards the internal bickering within the BJP.