Yashwardhan Joshi
A bite into the apple, they say, led to the loss of paradise; here Virbhadra Singh has bitten off more than he can chew. The apples have landed him in the pits. And as election fever catches on, the ruling BJP has turned on the political heat to banish him from his paradise called Himachal Pradesh. The BJP has accused Virbhadra Singh of corruption and forgery in connection with his apple orchards.
Were the raja’s golden apples really made of gold, the BJP wants to know. It has demanded a probe by a special investigation team into how his agricultural income of Rs 51 lakh for three years, shown in the income tax returns, has been retrospectively revised twelve-fold to Rs 6.15 crore.
The BJP has alleged that the money, invested in LIC policies, has actually been payoffs received from a private steel company when he was the Union steel minister. Virbhadra Singh has not only to prove that this charge of a ‘’corrupt raja’’ is politically motivated, but also to show to the Congress high command that it made a wise decision in making him the party’s State unit president after his resignation from the Union Cabinet on corruption charges.
The Assembly elections, scheduled for November 4, will, thus, make or mar Virbhadra’s political career as he fights one last electoral battle to be the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh for the sixth time. But one thing that can go in his favour is the anti-incumbency his political rival, chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, is facing.
The Dhumal government is also facing corruption charges leveled by BJP dissidents who have formed their own party, the Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), under the tutelage of Maheshwar Singh, former raja of Kullu. The HLP, fighting in alliance with the CPI and the CPI (M) which have joined hands for the first time in the State, may well queer the pitch for the BJP in some areas and give the Congress the advantage. The HLP is contesting 36 seats, the CPI (M) 16 and the CPI 7 under the banner of Himachal Lokhit Morcha (HLM).
Mayawati’s BSP, which opened its account in the last elections with one seat, has put up candidates in 66 of the 68 constituencies, and will try to make inroads into new pocket boroughs. But like Mamata Bannerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP, which have also jumped into the poll arena, contesting 25 and 15 seats, respectively, the BSP’s main aim is not to take a shot at power but to increase its vote share in the State to remain a national party.
Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s SP are also in the fray, fighting in 18 and 15 constituencies, respectively. But these parties will not pose any serious challenge to the Congress and the BJP– the two main contenders to power in the State. The real threat comes from more than two dozen rebels who are fighting as independents and have the potential to win in at least half a dozen constituencies and dent the vote banks of their former colleagues in many others. Among the rebels are four legislators, including Tulsi Ram, Speaker of the outgoing Assembly, and former minister Roop Singh Thakur.
Unemployment seems to be the major issue in these elections with all the major players targeting the youths. While the BJP has promised in its manifesto 10 lakh jobs for the youths, the Congress has vowed to create 1 lakh jobs a year, provide laptops to 10,000 meritorious class 10 and 12 students, and hand out Rs 1,000 per month as dole to unemployed youths whose family incomes are below Rs. 2 lakh, if voted to power.
The CPI (M), which put up an impressive show in the municipal polls, is not far behind. It has also promised unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 to the youths and minimum daily wage of Rs 300 to the workers.
The HLP, the BSP, the TMC and others are espousing the cause of villagers affected by the up coming hydel projects, saying both the Congress and the BJP had failed to ensure 70 per cent employment to locals in these projects when they were in power. Besides youth, the government servants constitute a major portion of the vote bank. Hence, both the Congress and the BJP have given ticket to former bureaucrats and university professors to woo the service class.
For the Congress, AICC President Sonia Gandhi kicked off the party’s poll campaign by launching a scathing attack on the Dhumal government for failing to implement the Central schemes and reduce VAT on diesel to benefit the common man. Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, in his election rallies, has hit out at the BJP for its anti-farmer policies and for blocking land reforms and FDI in retail.
And as the election campaign gains momentum, top political leaders of other parties will kick up dust in the coming days. Dhumal would like to see a repeat of the performance of the last elections when his party won a landslide victory for the first time in the State, and a bitter end of the political career of his bete noire, Virbhadra Singh.
As for the ‘’raja’’, facing heat because of his apple orchards, he would want to upset the applecart of the chief minister. But one will have to wait till December 20 when the votes will be counted and the vital question answered: Will it be paradise lost or paradise regained for Virbhadra Singh.
Big controversy surrounding BJP President Nitin Gadkari has given a fresh breather to Congress and dented anti-corruption campaign against “Raja” [IFS]
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