Newsmaker | Khimi Ram, former Himachal BJP chief, joins Congress in search of a second wind

Ram, a Dhumal loyalist, wants to contest Assembly polls later in the year from Banjar that he has represented twice.

Former Himachal Pradesh BJP president Khimi Ram being felicitated by AICC in-charge of the state Rajeev Shukla as he joins Congress, at AICC headquarters in New Delhi, Tuesday. (PTI)

A Prem Kumar Dhumal loyalist who headed the BJP in Himachal Pradesh from 2009 to 2012, Khimi Ram, 73, joined the Congress in an official ceremony on Tuesday. He has his eyes on contesting the election later this year from the Banjar Assembly seat in Kullu district that he has represented twice.

“I do not have anger towards the BJP and I was not pressurised either. A majority of times, the Congress has formed the government in the country, because of which there has been tremendous development. Under the current government, there is corruption, unemployment, and many other issues. The party will move forward and I hope to see Rahul Gandhi will become the PM,” Ram said while being inducted into the party in the presence of Rajiv Shukla, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Himachal Pradesh at the party headquarters in Delhi.

The 73-year-old from Kullu entered politics in the 1990s and held a post in the district council. He went on to contest elections from Banjar in 2003 on a BJP ticket and won. He retained the seat in the Assembly polls four years later. The same year, Ram was also elected Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly.

With Dhumal’s backing he became the state BJP president in 2009 after Jai Ram Thakur, the current chief minister, was inducted into the Cabinet. The following year, Ram was unanimously re-elected to the post. But his tenure was marked by infighting in the state unit and saw the exit of former state party president and former MP Maheshwar Singh in December 2011 over Khimi Ram’s decision to drop Naveen Dhiman and Tikku Thakur from the BJP’s state body and district unit. Singh’s resignation from the BJP was preceded by the party’s decision to drop him from the national executive, apparently on the advice of state leadership after he formed an anti-corruption front. Singh, however, ultimately returned to the party fold four years later.

LIVE: Congress welcomes eminent political leader in the party in the presence of Shri @ShuklaRajiv at the AICC HQ, New Delhi.
https://t.co/NszvsLxdhi

— Congress (@INCIndia) July 12, 2022

After JP Nadda, the current BJP national president, moved from the Dhumal government to the central BJP leadership, the party decided to overhaul the state organisation. As part of the revamp — and based on the advice of Nadda and former national vice president Shyam Jaju — then BJP president Nitin Gadkari removed Ram as state BJP president. He was moved to the Dhumal administration and given a Cabinet post (forest minister).

But his time in power was short-lived as the Dhumal government was voted out of power in the elections later that year. Denied an election ticket in 2017, Ram was increasingly sidelined in the party in the last few years. Last year, he expressed a desire to contest the Assembly elections again from Banjar. The Congress has not had a strong leader in Banjar since the death of former minister-MLA Karan Singh, who was from the erstwhile royal family of Kullu, in 2017. The seat is currently held by the BJP’s Surender Shourie who defeated Karan Singh’s son Aditya Vikram Singh in the last election.