Expecting hung Assembly in Himachal Pradesh, BJP rebels may form pressure group

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, November 23

Independent candidates are fancying their chances if the Assembly election results present a hung House.

Three BJP rebels who fought the elections as Independent candidates, namely Kirpal Singh Parmar (Fatehpur), Manohar Dhiman (Indora) and Sanjay Prashar (Jaswan Pragpur), held a meeting here recently.

Parmar, a former Rajya Sabha member, had contested the Assembly elections from Fatehpur as an Independent candidate after the BJP denied him ticket. Prashar contested as an Independent candidate from Jaswan Pragpur after the BJP did not allot him ticket from the constituency. Manohar Dhiman, a former BJP legislator from Indora, had also contested the Assembly elections as an Independent candidate.

Sources say that to form a pressure group, these candidates have contacted Jagjivan Pal, a former Congress MLA from Sullah, who had also contested the elections as an Independent candidate after the party denied him ticket.

Hoshiyar Singh, who again fought elections from Dehra as an Independent candidate, is in touch with political parties. He had joined the BJP recently and was expecting ticket from Dehra. However, the BJP ignored his claim to ticket and he again contested the elections as an Independent candidate. Hoshiyar Singh is considered a strong candidate to win the elections.

In the history of Himachal Pradesh, a hung Assembly was witnessed only once in 1998. A splinter group of the

Congress led by former Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram had formed the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC). The HVC had won four seats in the 1998 elections while the BJP and the Congress had secured 31 seats each. The BJP managed to form government with the help of the HVC and Independent candidate Ramesh Dhawala. Ramesh later joined the BJP.

As many as 21 rebels of the Congress and the BJP were in the fray this time.