BJP draws a blank in Dhumal fort for 1st time in 40 years

NEW DELHI: For the first time in almost four decades, BJP has been wiped out in all five constituencies of Hamirpur, home district of former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his son, Union Cabinet minister Anurag Thakur. Dhumal was sidelined in these polls.

It had not lost Bhoranj in a long time, while Hamirpur, where it lost to rebel candidate Ashish Sharma, had been its citadel since 1998 when it had all five seats and Dhumal was elected CM. Consecutive victories came in 2003, 2007, and 2012. In 2017, though, BJP lost three of these five seats, including Sujanpur where Rajinder Rana of Congress defeated Dhumal, even as BJP took the state.

But in the latest elections BJP was not only thrown out of its citadel but handed a crushing defeat in 12 of the 17 contests in Thakur’s Hamirpur parliamentary constituency. The party also lost four of the five assembly seats in Una district, which is part of Hamirpur parliamentary constituency, while it took three of the four seats in Bilaspur, home district of BJP president J P Nadda.

Along with the five seats in Hamirpur district, BJP also lost Dehra, Dharampur, Chintpurni, Gagret, Haroli, Kutlehar, and Ghumarwin in the parliamentary constituency of Thakur, winning just Jaswan Pragpur, Una, Jhanduta, Bilaspur, and Sri Naina Deviji. State BJP insiders blame it on factionalism, wrong candidates, and the rebel factor. The cadre were unhappy with ticket allotment in Hamirpur, Barsar Sujanpur, and Bhoranj, and also with how Dhumal was sidelined despite his influence.