Hamirpur (HP): BJP candidate Maya Sharma, wife of the former MLA Baldev Sharma is facing the ire of party workers from Himachal Pradesh’s Badsar assembly seat, from where seven candidates are in fray.
The main contest is between ID Lakhanpal, the sitting Congress MLA, and Maya Sharma of the BJP.
Sharma is the elder brother of Rakesh Kumar Babli, a former senior leader of the BJP, who lost his life while going to Kinnaur to take part in an official function.
Lakhanpal won the last election by a margin of 539 votes defeating Sharma of the BJP.
Sharma, close to the Dhumal family, was denied a ticket this time due to pressure by the party workers of the area citing him to be an outsider.
Instead party gave the ticket to his wife Maya Sharma, who is the leading women activist in the district.
There are 87,505 electorates in the constituency. Voting percentage of women in the 2017 elections was 77.51.
There are 111 polling stations across the constituency, 14 of them are designated highly vulnerable by the Election Department.
Sharma belongs to the Dhatwal area of the constituency located around the famous Baba Balak Nath temple. He is also the district BJP chief.
Ram Chand Sharma of Bijheri said that there was no justification of the party to give tickets to Baldev or his wife as they belonged to the Nadaun assembly segment.
He said that there was no dearth of party activists in the area and as such the decision of the party’s high command was wrong. He said that had the party ticket been given to any activist from the constituency, the situation would have been different.
Things have come to such a turn that the party workers of the Dhatwal area decided to field Sanjeev Sharma as an Independent candidate.
Congress workers meanwhile believe their party candidate Lakhanpal’s success is sealed as their leader has done a lot for the people during his tenure as MLA.
One of them, Dharam Singh said that their MLA was accessible to the common people and always helped them during crises. He talked about the Covid-19 period when Lakhanpal and his son carried the body of a dead patient to the crematorium when even family members of the deceased were hesitant. This showed his character.
Anshul Sharma, the media in charge of the Congress party claims that the party candidate is sure to win the election with more margins as compared to the previous election. He said that people wanted a noble and hardworking man and not a man who always ignored the people, especially his own party men.
A visit to the constituency reveals that the presence of candidates of the Aam Admi party and other small parties are also likely to invite problems for the candidates of both major parties.
A number of people who met UNI said that the success of the BJP nominee could have been possible had the ticket been given to any other person than one belonging to the Baldev Sharma family.
According to them, the situation is fluid this time and the outcome will depend on the votes the BJP rebel gets this time.
Meanwhile, there are indications that the BJP high command is trying its best to pursue Sanjeev Sharma to withdraw from the contest but he has so far refused to budge claiming that he was the candidate of the people and will not withdraw from the contest as the claim of the Dhatwal people has been ignored by the party fully knowing that they wanted a complete change of guard in the constituency.
