BJP shifts gears, to hold rally in all of Himachal’s 68 constituencies on Monday

All eyes will be fixed on the back to back rallies that BJP national president JP Nadda will be holding in Lahaul-Spiti, Kullu, and Manali. Kullu has emerged as point of internal conflict in BJP where erstwhile ruler Maheshwar Singh is yet to withdraw his nomination as an independent candidate. Maheshwar was denied a ticket at the last minute after his son filed nomination papers as an Independent candidate from Banjar. On Thursday, Maheshwar was called for separate meetings with Nadda and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, after which he announced that at 73, he did not want to take the party on, but added that “if my supporters still insist, only then will I contest as an Independent”.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will be addressing rallies in Doon, Nahan, and Kasauli while his Uttarakhand counterpart Pushkar Dhami will do the same at Chaupal, Pachhad, and Paonta Sahib. CM Thakur will address rallies in Churah, Chamba and Nurpur.

Among Union ministers, Jyotiraditya Scindia will hold rallies in Seraj and Banjar; Kiran Rijiju in Harauli and Una; General (retd) VK Singh in Sundernagar, Balh and Nachan; Bhupender Yadav in Shillai, Renukaji and Solan; and Hardeep Singh Puri in Haroli, Una and Gagret. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur, who has been criss-crossing the state will hold a rally at Nalagarh, where former MLA Krishan Lal Thakur has filed his nomination as an Independent candidate and has also gathered the support of most local leaders in the area.

Party’s election co-in charge Devender Singh Rana will address rallies in Bhattiyat and Dalhousie, while state in-charge Sanjay Tandon will do so in Chintpurni and Jaswan Pragpur.

Other leaders who will address rallies include Dushyant Gautam (Rampur, Kinnaur), Indu Goswami ( Bhoranj, Sarkaghat, Dharampur), Manoj Tiwari (Naina Deviji, Bilaspur), Sambit Patra (Kangra, Shahpur), Tejasvi Surya (Dharamshala, Palampur), Sandeep Singh (Indora, Fatehpur and Jawali), Avinash Rai Khanna (Hamirpur, Barsar, Kutlehar), and Sikander Kumar (Jhandutta, Ghumarwin).

Among former CMs, Shanta Kumar will address rally in Sullah and former Prem Kumar Dhumal in Sujanpur and Nadaun. In fact Dhumal, who has been sidelined after being denied ticket, on Friday addressed a rally in favour of Capt Ranjeet Singh, who is contesting from Sujanpur in Hamirpur district.

Dhumal told the gathering that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing a rally in Sujanpur on November 9. “I call upon the soldiers from the area to put on their caps and affix the medals on their chest on that day so that the Prime Minister gets to know how many soldiers this area has sent to the three services, how many have have served the country and how many have sacrificed their life in line of duty,” Dhumal said addressing the gathering.

Dhumal also inaugurated three BJP election offices in Sujanpur Assembly constituency.

The former CM said that BJP “has fielded a soldier from Sujanpur” and his victory in the November 12 election “will be the victory of the Indian Army”. He said the Sujanpur is home to a large number of military families and “all the ex-servicemen and their families should unite” to ensure Capt Ranjeet Singh’s victory.

Capt Ranjeet Singh said that time has come to take revenge for the defeat of Dhumal.

In the 2017 Vidhan Sabha election, Dhumal has lost his seat to Congress’ Rajender Rana.

BJP’s campaigning will intensify in the week before polling when PM Modi is likely to address multiple rallies beginning November 5. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also been roped in as star campaigner and will be visiting the state next week.