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Journalism of Courage
With Himachal Pradesh heading to the Assembly polls next month, Chief Minister Jairam Thakur, 57, is set to lead his party BJP’s “Mission Repeat” campaign in the hill state that has not seen any incumbent party returning to power since the 1990s. The polls will be a litmus test for Jairam who has risen from the ranks in the saffron camp to assume the top state post.
In a recent interview to The Indian Express, Himachal BJP president Suresh Kashyap made it clear that Jairam will be the party’s face in the elections to the 68-member state Assembly, saying “It has been conveyed by the leadership that we will be fighting elections under the leadership of Jairam Thakur since he is the leader of the House. It will be beneficial for the party.”
Jairam belongs to a humble family hailing from Himachal’s Mandi district. He started his political career with the ABVP, the RSS’ students wing, in the state and was appointed as its joint secretary in 1986. He had been the ABVP organising secretary for Jammu & Kashmir during 1989-93. He went on to become the president of the state Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP’s youth wing.
Subsequently, Jairam was inducted into the state BJP, where he rose from the position of the
Mandi district chief to the state party president in 2006.
Jairam has won consecutive five Assembly polls from Chachiot and Seraj (delimited constituency of Chachiot) in Mandi district since 1998. He was also the panchayati raj and rural development minister during 2009-2012 in the previous BJP government.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP ousted the incumbent Congress from power, but the saffron party’s leader and CM face Prem Kumar Dhumal lost his poll. A soft-spoken leader, Jairam was picked by the BJP high command as CM in light of his party work, his perceived public popularity and his association with the RSS. He had also been dubbed as an “accidental CM” given the circumstances in the lead-up to his elevation to the top state post.
Under Jairam’s leadership, the ruling BJP has seen several bypoll losses, even as his tenure has also been under the scanner over various controversies ranging from the appointment of chief secretaries to the recent Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC) chairperson’s appointment row.
Apart from these setbacks for Jairam, a number of BJP leaders have jumped ship and joined the principal Opposition Congress party in recent months.With the Congress appearing to be resurgent in the state, whose electoral history is marked by alternate governments, Thakur’s formidable task seems to be cut out for the upcoming Assembly polls.
