In HP's Mandi, BJP MP faces tough fight from Congress to retain the 4 seats

The pine hilltops may be covered with snow but the political temperature in Himachal Pradesh has risen with the BJP fighting to retain the four seats it won in 2014 in this land of apple, apricot, and cherry orchards which it currently governs.  

Of the four seats, Mandi is the one that could be decisive. The BJP’s sitting MP, Ram Swaroop Sharma, is facing a tough challenge from Congress. Former Congress union telecom minister Sukh Ram's grandson, Ashray Sharma, has emerged as a strong Congress candidate. 

It’s believed he lobbied hard for a BJP ticket initially in Mandi which has been a family stronghold since 1989 with a strong base among Brahmin voters. When he failed, he knocked on the Congress’ door and got the ticket, a decision which has cost his BJP father, Anil Sharma, both heartburn and a cabinet berth. The latter had to resign from the cabinet after his son got the Congress ticket though he remains in the BJP. 

Party hopping often happens in the run-up to an election. Critics accuse Sharma and his clan of political opportunism. His grandfather too had joined the BJP from the Congress just ahead of state elections in 2017, only to return to the Congress earlier this year after Sharma was denied a ticket by the BJP. 

The choice of Ashray Sharma as the Congress candidate ticket has invited widespread criticism from politicians. “It was not my ambition which caused this. It was something the BJP created.  I do not want to be MP, I want to serve people as a worker," Sharma told Business Standard on the telephone.

He cites respect for his grandfather as one reason for joining the Congress. Another is the BJP’s treatment of his father. “My father was given just one portfolio (the power ministry) where there was not much scope for public work," he added.

"Congress might have not have got the maximum seats in this assembly segment but the mood of the people is for the party as they have seen five years of the BJP’s un-kept promises. People are very literate in that sense and they decide their vote on the basis of performance," said Sharma.

As the battle in the state intensified, Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered the fray. "23rd May ko jab natije aaynge to phir ek bar Modi sarkar, lekin mai ye bhi kahunga ke boond boond se ghara bharta hai. (There will be a Modi government once the results of the polls are out on May 23 but each segment is necessary to  make the big picture),” said Modi during his campaigning in Solan.

To help Ram Swaroop Sharma retain his seat, Modi played the Balakot air strike card. The party knows it has to fight anti-incumbency and the unhappiness over demonetization and GST glitches. He talked of how he wanted a really ‘grand’ victory this time and paid special attention to first time voter, he said. 

In hard hitting jibes at the Congress, Modi accused the party of being weak on national security and of using defence deals as ‘ATMs’. The least the Congress could have done, he said, was hold on to the economic growth that had taken place under Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. 

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi also joined the fray. In a video clip, she urged voters to remember how little Modi had done for them and to vote for the Congress if they wanted development in Himachal. 

The voter mood, as always, is hard to discern but a divide is palpable between the business and trading class which is upset over GST and demonetization and professionals who seem to favour the BJP government.  “Those who deal in cash have issues with the government. They are the ones facing the consequences. GST has ended the role of the middleman in business when it got rid of a multiple tax regime,” said retired professor Satya Vrat Bhardwaj of Y S Parmar University in Solan.

 For Prem Kumar, who owns a clothes shop in Shima on the popular Mall Road, the new GST regime is simply too complicated to understand. He counters Bhardwaj’s view that the tax system has been simplified by pointing out that there is no uniform rate structure in GST.

 “Each of the items has a different rate and that causes lot of problems for traders,” said Kumar.

 In between serving customers at the famous Indian Coffee Shop on the Mall Road, an employee said both parties had contributed to the state’s development. The conclusion he drew was that it made little difference who you voted for. 

 A local cab driver said he also wasn’t greatly bothered which party came to power. But he did feel strongly about one thing. “The current PM should get another term as five years is too short a period for someone to carry out reforms in a large country like India."

The four Lok Sahba seats in Himachal Pradesh go to the polls on May 19.