BJP joins hands with Kunj Lal

SHIMLA: Realising that bringing rebels back to the party fold can help tilt the scales in their favour, the BJP has being to woo them.
It has started the process with the merger of the Kullu Gaurav Manch, a splinter group headed by former minister Thakur Kunj Lal.
The former minister, who has also headed the state unit of the party, had parted ways following the denial of party ticket from the Kullu assembly segment to his son, Govind Thakur, former president of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, in the last assembly elections.
As the ticket from the Kullu assembly seat was given to Karan Singh, a former minister, who earlier represented the Banjar assembly segment of the district, Kunj Lal left the party and his son contested as an Independent from the Kullu seat.
At that time, to keep his supporters together, Kunj Lal floated the Kullu Gaurav Manch, which also worked actively for Govind Thakur. The clout that Kunj Lal and his son hold in Kullu was evident from the fact that despite contesting as a rebel, Govind Thakur finished second to Raj Krishan Gaur of the Congress, bagging more votes than the official BJP candidate.
Realising the importance of return of rebels, state BJP chief Suresh Bharadwaj persuaded Kunj Lal and other dissidents to come back. Kunj Lal convened a conference of Kullu Gaurav Manch workers,which was attended by Bharadwaj and other party leaders recently, where the merger of the Manch with the BJP was agreed upon.
Political observers feel that the return of Kunj Lal, his son and their supporters to the BJP could be a great morale booster for the party’s candidate from the Mandi parliamentary seat, Maheshwar Singh, as the Kullu assembly segment falls in this Lok Sabha constituency.
They were of the view that this could also have a ripple effect in the adjoining assembly segments and help Maheshwar Singh retain the seat.