Ek vote PM ko, ek CM ko is voters’ mantra in Hamirpur

Pratibha Chauhan

Shimla, May 18

There appears to be blurring of political lines as the slogan ‘Ek vote PM ko, ek CM ko’ is catching up in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency, also witnessing bypolls for two Assembly segments on the home turf of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

With their leaders changing parties very frequently, the voter, too, seems to be confused and even the BJP or Congress loyalists are weighing their voting options very minutely. There appears to an undercurrent based on the slogan of ‘Ek vote PM ko, ek CM ko’, especially in the Sujanpur Assembly segment where Rajinder Rana, who has won three elections as Independent and two on the Congress ticket in 2017 and 2022, is now a BJP candidate.

The slogan is resonating amidst the election din in the Hamripur parliamentary seat from where four-time MP and Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur is in the fray. With simultaneous holding of the Lok Sabha elections and Assembly bypoll for Sujanpur and Barsar segments, the electorate seems to be perplexed with leaders hopping parties.

In fact Rana as Congress candidate defeated his mentor PK Dhumal in 2017 from Sujanpur, depriving the veteran leader a third term as the CM. With political events taking an interesting turn, Rana, a BJP candidate, is now banking on Dhumal and Anurag to see him through in his fight for political survival. Rana in 2014 had resigned as an Independent MLA from Sujanpur to take on Anurag and made his wife contest the Assembly bypoll on the seat he vacated. The gamble to settle score with Dhumal family failed to pay as both Rana and his wife lost.

Although the Congress has a comfortable majority of 34 in the 62-member Vidhan Sabha, but with the BJP harping on the collapse of the Sukhu regime on June 4 when results are declared, the voters are weighing their voting options very minutely.

“We do not wish to repeat the mistake we made in 2017 when declared CM face PK Dhumal lost from here (Sujanpur). Now we have realised the importance of the CM being from your own district, be it from the Congress or the BJP,” said Jagdish Chand in Uhal village.

Echoing similar sentiments, Jagat Ram said he would certainly vote to make Modi as the PM for third time but Rajinder Rana cannot take people for a ride by switching sides within 15 months, insulting their vote.

What is even more interesting is that the Congress has given the Sujanpur ticket to Ranjit Rana, who switched sides from the BJP and is a die-hard Dhumal loyalist.

CM Sukhu, too, seems to be whipping up the emotional card too well. “Rana ensured the defeat of one CM earlier (Dhumal) and this time he plotted to ensure the fall of the Congress government, headed by me,” says the CM while making fervent appeal to voters to punish traitors and turncoats who take the electorate for a ride at a rally in Uhl in Sujanpur yesterday.