Himachal Pradesh byelection: Hill State expresses anger over “betrayal” by “turncoats”

Himachal Pradesh sees political turmoil as Congress MLAs defect to BJP, sparking betrayal sentiments among voters.

The Congress-ruled State of Himachal Pradesh saw political turbulence, a few months ago with six of its MLAs turning rebels. With all of them now contesting as candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the byelections on six Assembly seats, a strong sense among the people surrounding “betrayal” by “turncoats” appears to have gripped the political narrative in the hill State, which will also witness the Parliamentary election on June 1.

The stage is all set for a direct fight between the ruling Congress and the BJP for the upcoming byelections. These byelections were necessitated after the six Assembly seats - Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Lahaul-Spiti, Barsar, Gagret, and Kutlehar - fell vacant following the disqualification of the Congress MLAs from the State legislative Assembly for defying a party whip in February this year. Later, all these six Congress rebels joined the BJP and are now contesting as BJP candidates in the byelections. They were all elected as Congress MLAs in the 2022 Assembly election.

In Kutlehar’s Panoh village, Rakesh Kumar, who runs a welding shop on the busy Una-Amb stretch, says he has been hurt by the behaviour of the legislators who betrayed their party and the people. “Davinder Bhutto won on the Congress ticket from here [Kutlehar] in 2022, and later he joined the BJP. And now he is contesting as the BJP candidate. This is a complete betray of the trust of the people’s vote, besides being disloyal to their mother party,” he said while awaiting customers amid soaring mercury even as the election campaigning has hit top gear in the constituencies.

“It’s not just me, many in my village feel that way. In Himachal, which is called ‘Dev Bhoomi’, the majority of people are god-fearing, and the action of betrayal of any kind is considered nothing short of a sin. I am sure they will suffer politically in this byelection,” he adds.

At the main market in Jhalera, a grocery shop owner, who doesn’t want to reveal his name, expresses similar sentiments. “It was wrong on the part of Congress MLAs to switch the party, and now contesting on the BJP ticket has sent a bad message. People voted and elected them in 2022 for a term of five years, who gave them the authority to quit only after a year or so?” he quipped.

Earlier this year, the State saw political turbulence amid cracks in the Congress’s State unit, which came to the fore during the Rajya Sabha election, resulting in the defeat of Abhishek Manu Singhvi - the official Congress candidate - due to cross-voting by six MLAs of the ruling party.

As intense electoral campaigning is underway, at Bangana, addressing a gathering, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu asserts that the people of the State have elected the present Congress government and it will complete its tenure. Hitting out the “turncoats”, he said “Some Congress MLAs sold their souls. They all played with the sentiments of the people of the State and won’t be spared even by the Almighty. They were not alone, the BJP was also behind them as it attempted to destabilise and topple the Congress as their hunger for power has increased, and since the BJP could not form the government in the State based on votes, they have been attempting to grab the chair through money power,” Mr. Sukhu said.