Ahead of the 2007 Assembly elections in Himachal, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was riding high, and projecting itself as the third alternative.The party, however, finds its stars in trouble before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.It’s chief ministerial candidate Vijai Singh Mankotia, a former Congress minister, has decided to retire from politics. Former BJP minister Karan Singh, who secured the highest number of votes as the single BSP candidate in Kullu district, has since joined the Congress.There are over two dozen other Congress rebels in BSP. Some of them, who made the Congress lose badly in the December 2007 elections, are already in touch with the parent party. With the Congress making serious efforts to regain its lost ground, and the BJP persistently holding up on its gains, BSP may find the Himachal hills difficult. “My agenda is to wind up the BSP in Himachal. The process has started,” maintains PCC president Kaul Singh Thakur.Thakur admits that BSP had contributed to his party’s defeat in the last Assembly elections. In 2007, BSP had opened its account in the 68-member Himachal Assembly by winning one seat.Its share of votes in most Assembly elections had never been beyond 0.04 per cent, and the party could never contest more than a dozen seats. But contesting all 68 seats under Vijai Singh Mankotia’s command, the party got seven per cent votes, a record of sorts. Winning even one seat in Himachal gave a real boost to BSP, though Mankotia himself got defeated in his home district.BSP’s performance, though, caused a severe loss to the Congress in the lower Himachal belt, and adversely dented its prospects for forming the government.The loss was also significant in old and mid himachal belts,including Mandi and Kullu districts.
