swapping-parties-congress-and-bjp-rebel-pitted-against-each-other-in-sujanpur

Sujanpur Assembly constituency in Hamirpur district, which had turned the fate of former two-time BJP Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal in 2017, who suffered defeat despite being CM face of BJP, is in for an interesting battle again in the by-poll on June 1. 

 

Fifteen months after the formation of Congress government in Himachal Pradesh in 2022, Congress and BJP rebels, who have swapped the parties to pursue their political aspirations, are locked in a direct fight. 

 

The by-poll in Sujanpur was forced by the rebellion in Congress party, which led to disqualification of six MLAs from the Assembly, including Rajinder Rana, who won on Congress ticket in 2022.

 

After Rana joined BJP last month, along with five other Congress rebels, and got the ticket to contest by-poll in Sujanpur, Ranjit Singh, who contested on BJP ticket in 2022 and lost to Rana by a thin margin of 399 votes, switched to Congress and has entered the fray as Congress nominee.

 

Rana, who has a fair personal base in Sujanpur Assembly segment due to his long social connect in the community, had contested 2012 Assembly election as an independent, when he had parted ways with his ‘guru’, former BJP CM, Prem Kumar Dhumal over an issue in Dhumal government from 2007 to 2012. In 2014, he got closer to then Congress CM Virbhadra Singh and contested Lok Sabha election from Hamirpur on Congress ticket at Singh’s instance.

 

Rana left his Assembly seat that time to enter Congress. Rana, however, lost by a margin of 98000 from BJP’s Anurag Thakur in 2014 Lok Sabha election, and his wife, who contested on Congress ticket from Sujanpur in by-poll the same year lost to BJP’s Narender Thakur by a slender margin of around 500 votes.

 

In 2017, when BJP chose to change Dhumal’s constituency from Hamirpur to Sujanpur, while declaring him CM face, the BJP made it to power, but Dhumal lost to Rana. 

 

The political talk was that Rana wanted to settle scores with the former BJP CM and he did it with the backing of former six times Congress CM, Virbhadra Singh. In HP politics, it was seen that Singh (who died in 2021) and Dhumal were tooth and nail opposed to each other, beyond political background also.

 

However, equations have changed full circle in just seven years, as Rana, who had been a loyalist of Singh in Congress in the past, did not go along well with new Congress Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu despite being from CM’s home district, is back to BJP and relies much on Dhumal family for the support in Assembly by-poll.

 

The local BJP leaders do have a doubt about this ‘patch-up’, given the not so positive body language of Union Minister, Anurag Thakur and his father, Prem Kumar Dhumal, when Rana met them recently.

 

The Congress strategy to field BJP rebel Capt (retd), Ranjit Singh against Rana in the by-poll is not seen as a good political step, as Rana was so far facing direct allegation of changing political loyalty for money.

 

The fact that Rana switched sides so fast and is now contesting on the ticket of the party he stood against in 2022, was not going well with people in Sujanpur. 

 

But Ranjit’s entry into Congress may neutralise this feeling, say some locals in Sujanpur. However Ranjit Singh has an army background and does enjoy that support in Sujanpur, which has a good population of ex-servicemen. More so, he lost by just 399 votes in 2022 from Rana.

 

“They are now both sailing in the same boat. Ranjit Singh loses the sympathy of being left out by his party. So, it is difficult to say who will have an edge. 

 

It is to be seen whether the people here are re-thinking whether they should repeat the mistake of letting down the CM from Hamirpur again after 2017,” said some shopkeepers in Sujanpur, who keenly discuss politics during elections.