Lack of unity within BJP led to Nalagarh poll debacle

Internal bickering within the Bharatiya Janata Party led to its poll debacle in Nalagarh even after 125 leaders, comprising former ministers and sitting and former MLAs and a Rajya Sabha MPs camped there for over a month.

No efforts were made to placate BJP rebel Harpreet Saini, who played spoilsport for the party for the second time since 2017. A section of the leaders negated his gaining support base within the masses even as he more than doubled his voter share from 5,443 in 2017 to 13,025 votes now. Though he was expelled from the party on June 29 for contesting as an independent candidate, it did no good to the party.

They continued to believe that he could harm the prospects of the Congress as both hailed from the same area of Pargana Plassi. This became the biggest blunder of the BJP which merely concentrated on assigning poll duties to all and sundry leaders from across the state.

The public support gathered by Saini disgruntled a section the BJP. The discontent was made amply clear during the poll campaign. However, the senior leaders conveniently dismissed the same.

Campaign convener Sikander Kumar, who had no experience of electoral politics, did little to steer the party towards victory. By continuing to overlook the shortcomings, the posse of leaders remained confined to holding meetings in air conditioned rooms in hotels while maintaining a distance from the field.

The hoteliers did reap benefits as several hotels remained booked for over a month by the campaigning leaders earning them neat profits.

However, they failed to give audience to the field workers having credible feedback from the ground, failing which no measures could be taken to address the concerns of the voters.

Despite attaining a lead of 15,164 votes more than a month ago in the Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate KL Thakur lost the election by a whopping 8,990 votes. The party thus went down by 24,154 votes in barely 42 days.

Thakur also faced the animosity of the voters who asked him why he had re-joined the BJP after former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had publicly humiliated him during the run up to the 2022 Assembly elections during a public rally.

Although he harped on the lack of development during the Congress regime, he failed to convince the voters of how his joining the BJP would help.

With Thakur being recognised as the disciple of former CM Jai Ram Thakur, a section of the party it seems was keen to cut him to size following internal bickering within the party. The victory over Hamirpur seat served as the lone saving grace for the BJP where a systematic campaign was led by local leaders.