Again, Kangra plays the kingmaker

CHANDIGARH:  Kangra district is the kingmaker in the Himachal Pradesh elections and this time also it held to its previous reputation as out of 15 seats in the district, which are the highest in any district of the state, the Congress won 10. The grand old party won 40 out of 68 seats.

The Congress won Indora, Fathepur, Jawali, Shahpur, Dharamsala, Nagrota-Bhagwan, Palampur, Baijnath, Jaisinghpur and Jawalamukhi. While the ruling BJP could only win four seats including, Nurpur, Sulah, Jaswanpragpur in Kangra, and while Dehra was won by an independent candidate Hoshyar Singh who defeated Congress candidate Rajesh Sharma by 4,024 votes. 

In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP had won 12 seats from Kangra, while two seats were won by Congress and one by independent. According to political analysts,  the New Pension Scheme was crucial to the Congress’ victory. The Old Pension Scheme figured as a prominent election promise by the Congress in the Assembly election. The party had promised to restore it in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh if it came to power.  The Central University, which is headquartered in Dharamsala but is currently operating from a temporary campus in Shahpur, Kangra, was the second major problem. 

While in the neighbouring district of Mandi, which is the home district of outgoing chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, the safforn party did well as it got nine seats out of 10 and one went to the Congress. The BJP won due to the CM factor and aggressive camping, besides projects given to the district.  While in Kullu district both BJP and Congress got two seats each and the local issues were dominant there.

There was factionalism in the Congress’ Ani assembly seat of the district thus the party lost this seat to sitting MLA Kishori Lal, who fought the election as an independent.  In Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti, the Congress won as the environmental issues dominated these tribal regions with the voters asking the candidates to clarify their stand on new hydroelectric projects and implementation of the Forest Rights Act.While in Hamirpur, the home district of Union Minister Anurag Thakur Congress won four assembly seats and one went to independent. 

In Una, four seats were won by the Congress and one by the BJP. In Shimla district, the Congress won seven out of eight seats due to the apple growers’ agitation over GST imposed on the apple packing.

Old Pension Scheme crucial to the Congress’ victory
The New Pension Scheme was crucial to the Congress’ victory, according to political analysts. The Old Pension Scheme figured as a prominent election promise by the Congress during the campaign. The grand old party had promised to restore the scheme in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh if it came to power.