Himachal Pradesh: BJP Leading in All Four Seats

New Delhi: In early voter trends announced by the Election Commission, the BJP appears to be leading all four seats in Himachal Pradesh.

In 2014 the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the Lok Sabha elections in Himachal Pradesh winning all of the four seats. Its vote share was 53% against Congress’s 41%.

The saffron party continued its performance in the 2017 assembly elections and formed the government with 44 of the 68 seats. The Congress won 21, while the CPI(M) won 1.

The two national parties, the BJP and the Congress, are the dominant players in Himachal Pradesh while the CPI(M) has a minor presence.

In the 2019 elections, the Congress is poised to gain some ground although the BJP is likely to remain the dominant party. The contest in the Mandi and Shimla constituencies is likely to be close.

Hamirpur is also a constituency to watch as BJP’s Anurag Thakur will be looking to retain the seat for a third time. The Congress has fielded senior leader Ram Lal Thakur.

In Mandi, the Congress has fielded Aashray Sharma, the grandson of Sukh Ram, who was a minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in 1996 and was convicted in a corruption case.

Some of the key issues faced by the hill state are non-payment of apple dues and implementation of forest rights act (FRA). Since 2015, dues of over Rs 100 crore of apple growers are unpaid. Arthiyas

(commission agents) who bought the produce from growers have delayed on payment.

The problem exacerbated after demonetisation in November 2016. Growers have argued that demonetisation gave arthiyas the excuse to delay payments pointing out a reduction in circulation of cash. The problem has continued and while pre demonetisation, growers were paid around 40% of the amount due in cash, that has now reduced to only around 5%.

Several apple growers have registered first information reports (FIR) on the matter. The state has recently set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the issue. The growers have also expressed their displeasure that despite the scale of the problem in a state well-known for its apple production, neither political party has highlighted it as a political issue.

Also a cause for worry for apple growers is a direction of the Himachal Pradesh high court which has treated apple plantations in forest areas as encroachment. The HC ordered that the encroachments be removed and the government resorted to cutting down several thousand trees in the deemed forest area.

Another issue is the non-implementation of the forest rights act under which titles are to be issued for the people in the state to acknowledge individual and community forest rights. Progress has been slow with only 130 of the more than 17,000 claims having been adjudicated upon.

Those affected have urged, through protests, the state government to expedite the implementation of the Act for several years. The protests have increased in intensity after the Supreme Court orderin February this year which could lead to the eviction of all those whose claims have been rejected under the act.