In Lahaul-Spiti, Markanda outfit looks to challenge BJP

Shimla: Former minister Ram Lal Markanda, who left the BJP and contested as an independent candidate after the party gave the Lahaul-Spiti assembly seat bypoll ticket to Congress turncoat Ravi Thakur, has floated his own outfit and named it Lahaul-Spiti Vikas Manch.
He has also appointed office-bearers at the district level to gear up for the 2027 assembly elections.
BJP, in the bypoll, had come in third. While the Congress won, Markanda had come in second.
Markanda is a three-time former MLA who had also remained a minister in previous BJP govts headed by Prem Kumar Dhumal and Jai Ram Thakur. In the 2022 assembly elections, he lost to Thakur by 1,616 votes. Thakur and five other Congress MLAs had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election on Feb 27 this year in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan.
Later, all six MLAs were disqualified by speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania under the provisions of anti-defection law for defying the whip issued by Congress during the budget session.
Problems for BJP in Lahaul-Spiti started when its central leadership decided to field Thakur in the bypoll. After finding that BJP leadership has sidelined him, Markanda and his supporters revolted against the party and contested as an independent candidate.
In the bypoll, Thakur got just 3,049 votes, Markanada got 7,454 votes and Congress’s Anuradha Rana got 9,414 votes.
Markanda is the district president of the manch. Markanda said development of Lahaul-Spiti is his sole objective and he had formed Lahaul-Spiti Vikas Manch for this very reason.