Ipsita Baishya
It’s that time of the year when people in the hill state of Himachal are all set to cast their votes, choose their political representatives and thus participate in a decisive democratic exercise. The first phase of elections in Himachal is already over with the three tribal constituencies of Kinnaur, Bharmour and Lahaul-Spiti voting earlier. The rest of the State is scheduled to go to polls for the second phase on December 19.
In the absence of any outstanding issues, members of both the Congress and BJP have said that they would contest the forthcoming assembly polls on “local issues”. While the Congress has named “development” as a key agenda, the BJP will contest the elections raising the issue of “corruption and high prices”.
Corruption
Corruption is an overriding factor dogging the elections. The BJP has used corruption as a plank in the state emphasising the fact that at present the common man in the state is fed up with the corrupt regime of the Veerbhadra Singh-led Congress government.
The party has cited corruption, price rise, unemployment and failure of the Congress-led government in the State on all fronts as the main election issues this time and has promised to provide a clean, honest and a transparent Government in Himachal. In a rally in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh BJP leader Rajnath Singh said that welfare and development of the people would be given top priority.
With the BJP intending to make Chief Minister Veerbhadra Singh the prime target of the election campaign, the congress in its turn has raised issues of corruption during the previous BJP government. The Congress has cited corruption charges against the Dhumal government pointing out irregularities for employment of government servants. The party is even believed to have burnt documents in this regard.
They have quoted the case of former Sub-Ordinate Services Board chairman Surinder Mohan Katwal who has been convicted in three cases for irregularities in recruitments. It’s not indictment of Katwal, but of Dhumal directly, the Congress have said.
Meanwhile, Major Vijay Singh Mankotia convener of BSP in Himachal Pradesh has leveled serious corruption charges against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.He has brought an audio cassette and CD, which mentions names of Himachal CM and his wife in corruption related charges.But the charges have not been proven.The CM on his part has trashed the CD.
Unemployment
Rampant unemployment is another serious problem begging for urgent attention.Figures reveal that around 15lakh youth here are jobless forcing them to seek work outside the state. Private projects in the state like the construction of dams often use both skilled and unskilled manpower from outside. As a result labourers, engineers, architects etc are hired from elsewhere and the locals are left out.And any party is yet to come out with a durable solution for it.
Development/Infrastructure
The Congress agenda for the polls is pro-development. The Congress has said that the party’s manifesto would be "pro-poor" and its thrust would be on the social sector. The challenge of development in the context of development is a formidable one. Himachal especially in the upper reaches of the state do not have proper infrastructure .In many areas there are no proper roads and no connectivity or the roads suffer from acute lack of maintainence. Natural phenomenon like cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides are quite common causing immense hardship to the local people. A well-chalked out policy for accelerated development may become an issue.
Anti-incumbency
Psephologists predict that the BJP has the edge, given that the Congress, which is in government, is bogged down by anti-incumbency. But the surprise element is that Mayawati and her BSP, fresh from its Dalit-Brahmin victory in UP, are testing their social engineering skills in the hill state. Also the three remote tribal constituencies of Kinnaur, Bharmour and Lahaul Spiti, which usually vote well after the results in the rest of the states are announced, were the first to exercise their franchise and must be taken into reckoning. While it is not clear which way the tribals will vote, the spoilsport this time is Mayawati, who sees the polls as another opportunity to test her skills on a platform far removed from UP in terms of demographics and social attitudes. What clicked in UP may not yield the same results, but her BSP has nevertheless ruffled both the Congress and BJP camps. The BSP entered the election scene by roping in Mankotia, a dissident Congressman and former minister.The BSP entry has raised the possibility of a third force in the state`s polity, so far dominated by the Congress and the BJP. Says Mankotia: "The people are fed up of both the Congress and the BJP. Therefore, the BSP aims to inject an element of freshness in the state`s polity by targeting the youth."The BSP is fielding candidates in all the 68 assembly constituencies.
Congress CM Virbhadra Singh is fighting with his back to the wall. The opposition BJP is optimistic but seriously divided between the camps led by Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal—both former chief ministers. In what was so far a fairly predictable election, the BSP`s presence has injected an element of uncertainty.
Environment
Meanwhile,with a series of upcoming hydroelectric projects in the Sutlej and its principal tributaries their adverse environmental implications is emerging as a major issue. The people see the power projects as a serious threat to the environment in the ecologically fragile tribal areas that have of late been experiencing frequent flash floods and cloudbursts and facing water scarcity due to drying of natural sources. They blame the large-scale overground and underground construction activities, particularly the boring of long tunnels and large-scale excavation for underground power plants and other facilities for their travails.
In a bid to convert the prevailing resentment among the tribals on this count into votes all the non-Congress parties are making it a major poll issue. The Lok Janshakti Party(LJP), which is contesting for the first time, has adopted the slogan “Save Jal, Jungle Aur Zameen” given by Chipko Moverment leader Sunderlal Bahuguna who maintains that preserving water, forests and land was essential for survival.
BJP is not totally against power projects. It promises that the interest of people will be protected and mistakes committed in earlier projects will not be repeated.
The Congress asserts that projects will not be allowed to come up at the cost of environment and takes credit for the hydropower policy which makes it mandatory for the executing agency to spend 1.5 per cent of the total cost of the project for the development of the local area and release a minimum 15 per cent discharge in the river downstream for the survival of aquatic life and drinking and irrigation schemes.
These are roughly the issues all the key political players are seeking to address and redress in Himachal, problems reflective of the political dynamics of the region. In two months from now the state will see a new government in place or it may choose to retain its present one. Either way, it is public discretion to decide which party is best suited to lead them this time round. For now as the election momentum reaches a feverish pitch we can only wait and watch…
