THAKUR & THE REBELS

Celebration was not the first thing on BJP national president J.P. Nadda's mind when he arrived at his native Vijaypur village in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur district just before Diwali. 

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

He had an urgent task on his hands: working with Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to mollify party colleagues disgruntled with the distribution of tickets for the assembly polls due on November 12. In a state where no CM has returned to power since 1985, the BJP's strategy to beat anti-incumbency by denying tickets to 11 sitting MLAs, including two ministers, and fielding 23 new faces has, not surprisingly, triggered rebellion within certain sections of the party. The rebels have filed nominations to contest for 14 seats and an internal assessment by the party warns this could damage its prospects in five or six constituencies. For instance, in Banjar, the BJP candidate Surender Shourie will have to take on both Hiteshwar Singh-scion of the erstwhile royal family of Kulluwho is running as an Independent and the Congress candidate Khimi Ram Sharma, a former BJP state unit chief. Sharma crossed over to the grand old party in July, which has cost his father the Kullu seat, where the party has fielded teacher-turned-politician Purushottam Thakur. In a bid to put his house in order ahead of the election campaign, CM Thakur has been shuttling between Kullu and his hometown Mandi, which is most affected by intra-party dissidence. Nadda, too, is facing trouble in his own coterie, with close confidant and Bilaspur MLA Suresh Thakur having to make way for another protégé, Trilok Jamwal.