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Journalism of Courage
In what could turn into a festering problem for the BJP in Nalagarh constituency in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmaur district, former party MLA Krishan Lal Thakur who has filed his nomination as an Independent candidate has gathered the support of most local leaders in the area and is adamant about continuing the fight against his former party.
Though Thakur, along with his supporters, filed the nomination on Friday, he has not yet quit the BJP. Several office-bearers of the party’s block unit resigned from their posts in solidarity with him but remain BJP members. Thakur and his supporters are miffed with the BJP leadership for fielding incumbent MLA Lakhwinder Rana who joined the BJP from the Congress a few months ago instead of him. Rana defeated Thakur in the 2017 Assembly polls by a thin margin of 1,241 votes. In the 2012 elections, Krishan trumped Rana by almost 10,000 votes.
Thakur was a government employee and took voluntary retirement from his job as an executive engineer in Sirmaur before the 2012 elections. A popular leader with a strong base in the constituency, Krishan enjoyed the support of the then CM, Prem Kumar Dhumal, and other party leaders. His loss in 2017 was attributed to an alleged lack of presence on the ground that strengthened anti-incumbency sentiments.
But former BJP block president Baldev Thakur who is among the leaders who resigned from his post in solidarity with Thakur said: “In the last five years, he (Krishan) made close connections with the public. Even Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur supported him. He is behind the developmental projects in Nalagarh. We are working towards his victory.”
The denial of the poll ticket to the former MLA came as a shock to his supporters. But they are not backing down from a fight. In a show of strength, he has been organising rallies across the constituency since filing his papers as an Independent candidate. His supporters have also installed huge posters in the area that, in a message to the BJP, read, “Mera kya kasoor (what is my fault)?”
Asked if he would withdraw his nomination if BJP national president JP Nadda, who is visiting the poll-bound state, talked to him, Thakur said: “I have to go with the people of Nalagarh. I cannot cheat them.”
He added: “BJP state co-in-charge Sanjay Tandon came to my house the day I filed nomination as an Independent. I have been getting calls from CM Jai Ram Thakur and other senior leaders. I have made it clear that they can review the ticket. But I will not withdraw my papers.”
Thakur claimed that of the 48 panchayat pradhans in Nalagarh, 38 were with them. The president of the panchayat pradhans’ association of the area, Puneet Kaushal, also claimed that “most of the pradhans are with Thakur”, adding that “no pressure from the BJP would make them think otherwise”.
Baldev Thakur said Rana “cannot be supported since he was in the Congress for the longest time”. He added, “Rana switched over to the Congress from the BJP in 1998 and party workers have been opposing him in all elections since then. Now, he joins the BJP again. We cannot support him now.”
“He (Rana) raised slogans against the CM and the BJP’s national leaders. They used foul language against them and an FIR was filed. Now, he is the BJP ‘s candidate. We cannot support him at any cost. If the party allotted the ticket to any other BJP worker, we would have maybe worked with him or her,” Thakur said.
