PremiumAmid the Congress leading in 40 constituencies in Himachal Pradesh in the ongoing counting of the votes on 8 December for recently held state Assembly polls, chief minister Jairam Thakur conceded the party’s defeat. He had said that he would soon head to the governor’s office to submit his resignation.
The party (Congress) has now started to move the winning MLAs to Chandigarh, Indian Express quoted, adding that the leaders Bhupinder Baghel, Bhupinder Hooda, and Rajiv Shukla are now heading to the hill state.
Despite Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party entered the contest, people in the hill state chose the path to stay with the tradition of alternate Congress and BJP governments.
1) Anti-incumbency and alternative government's selection:
The Northern Hill state has kept the tradition alive of not letting any ruling party rest on its laurels for the past 37 years and this time too they chose opposition Congress to form the government. Popular CMS like Congress' Virbhadra Singh and BJP's Prem Kumar Dhumal too failed to change the political culture.
2) Old pension scheme and government employees' support:
Government employees constitute around 5 percent of the votes in the state and they have been agitating against the revival of the Old Pension Scheme for long. Since Congress promised to bring it back and the BJP didn't bother much, the inclination of voters turned towards the grand old party.
3) Emergence of BJP rebels:
People in recent part have been quite observing with the changes in political scenario in the state. Though CM Jai Ram Thakur have a clean image, people looked upset with the way he was letting a group of leaders run the government.
Also, frequent change of chief secretaries, and issues like police recruitment scam, Ari Nagar Panchayat notification and the draft Shimla development plan, etc may have affected BJP's return to the state.
4) Powerful apple lobby's unhappiness:
The apple growing northern state, whose lobby is dominated by people from the upper Himachal Pradesh, were sore at the lower prices given to it by the Adani Group. The profits of apple growers too declined post the rise of GST on cartons.
This gave an extra edge to the Congress, as unhappiness of this prosperous and traditionally dominant group -- apple growers -- have failed the Lotus bloom in HP.
5) Unemployment, price rise and Agniveers:
Each year a large number of youth join the armed forces. The recent Agniveer scheme, wherein soldiers would be recruited for only four years, was not welcomed by the youth of the state. Loss of livelihood is one of the reasons for people inclination towards Congress.
Also, the frequent price rise and inflation were major pain points among rural women.