BJP faces BJP rebel in only Himachal seat with two women taking on each other

Suresh Kashyap had won this seat in 2012 and 2017, but after he contested and won in the 2019 Lok Sabha election to become an MP, zila parishad member Dayal Payari was seen as the BJP frontrunner for the 2019 by-election. To everyone’s surprise, she was denied the ticket by the camp of Suresh Kashyap and CM Jai Ram Thakur, in control of the state BJP, as Payari belonged to the camp of former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, who had been marginalised within the party after he lost his Sujanpur seat in Hamirpur district in the 2017 Assembly elections.

When the BJP gave the ticket to Reena Kashyap, who was also a zila parishad member, Dayal Payari contested as an Independent. Although she lost that election, she had got 11,698 votes to come third.
In second place was Congress candidate Gangu Ram Musafir, a former minister and Vidhan Sabha Speaker who was a loyalist of former CM Virbhadra Singh, and had represented the seat from 1982 to 2007, before losing three consecutive times from Pachhad. In 2017, he got 19,359 votes to Reena Kashyap’s 22,167.

Both women had started their political careers in the BJP, with Payari winning zila parishad elections thrice from separate wards before 2017.
“Her voters in the BJP are still with her. She also has the support of those who are against the Suresh Kashyap camp. The SC voters in the constituency will also go with her, as BJP president Suresh Kashyap and incumbent MLA Reena Kashyap never attended meetings of Dalit groups, protesting ST status to the Hatti community that has been pushed by the BJP,” said Jai Prakash Chauhan, who was appointed block president of the Congress in Pachhad last week. Out of the 67 panchayats in Pachhad, Hattis are present in 34.

Chauhan even questioned the BJP’s big poll promise, saying there’s no notification according tribal status to the Hattis, and said the condition of roads in the constituency is pathetic, adding that locals are angry with the BJP because there is no staff in schools and health centres.

When asked about the Congress rebel Gangu Ram Musafir, who is fighting as an Independent, Chauhan said only those who got personal benefits from Musafir are with him, with the rest committed to the Congress. He added that at a recent rally in Pachhad, state Congress president Pratibha Singh had said that Gangu Ram Musafir using the name of Holy Lodge, claiming that it was with him. Holy Lodge is the residence of six-time former CM Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh, the current PCC president. She had urged people not to believe this, and to stand behind the Congress candidate Dayal Payari.

Incumbent MLA and BJP candidate Reena Kashyap said they are interacting with local SC communities to try and convince them that their rights would not be affected by the ST status to the Hattis, adding that this campaign was returning positive results. She further said that SC communities are not against the ST status for Hattis per se, only fearful that this may end up curtailing some of the rights they have been enjoying so far. She also said that although she had got only three years to work as an MLA, out of which, two were taken away by Covid, she had still given it her best.

With few days left for campaigning, Union Minister Smriti Irani is going to hold a rally for Reena Kashyap on November 8, with CM Jai Ram Thakur following up on November 9. Yet, observers feel Kashyap has a tough battle on her hands.