The Hindu : Rain brings down the curtain on high-profile campaign

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 25, 2003

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Rain brings down the curtain on high-profile campaign

By Kanwar Yogendra

Nahan (H.P.) Feb. 24. The campaigning for elections to the 65 Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh came to an end today amidst heavy showers at various places.

Elections to the three tribal seats of Lahul-Spiti, Kinnaur and Bharmaur have been postponed to June because of heavy snowfall.

Polling will be carried out on February 26, two days have been allotted for re-poll, if any, and counting of the votes will be taken up on March 1.

Among those in the fray are the Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal, the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) chief, Sukh Ram, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president, Vidya Stokes, and the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, Vir Bhadra Singh.

While Ms. Stokes and Mr. Singh held a joint press conference in Shimla today, Mr. Dhumal and Mr. Sukh Ram preferred to address public meetings in their districts.

It is for the first time in the electoral history of the State that such importance has been accorded to campaigning in the run-up to the polls.

Not surprising, as the stakes are very high for both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, addressed four public meetings in the State and the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, five in their whirlwind tours.

A number of other leaders from both parties and their allies also took part in campaigning.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, L.K. Advani, the Union Ministers, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Sahib Singh Verma, Shanta Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha and Vinod Khanna, the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, senior BJP leaders, Pramod Mahajan, Uma Bharti, Sunil Shastri, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ananth Kumar, and a number of MLAs from Uttaranchal and Punjab canvassed for votes.

The Union Fertilizer Minister, Sukhdev Dhindsa, the former Punjab Chief Minister, Prakash Singh Badal, and a number of Akali Dal MLAs from Punjab also took part in the campaigning.

The Congress Chief Ministers, Amarinder Singh, Ajit Jogi, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Shiela Dixit, senior leaders, R.K. Dhawan, Mohsina Kidwai and Ambika Soni, and a number of Punjab Ministers canvassed for party candidates.

The AICC spokesman, Anand Sharma, who hails from the State, had also camped here for a long time.

Even after being in power for five years, the BJP may still find the going tough in 18 seats in the southern part of the State.

The zone, comprising Solan, Sirmaur and Shimla, is a traditional Congress stronghold.

In Sirmaur, Prem, sitting Congress MLA from the Renuka constituency, seems to be in a comfortable position as compared to his BJP rival, Balbir Singh.

The same is the case with the sitting MLAs of Shilai and Pacchad, Harshvardhan and Gangu Ram.

The Ponta Sahib seat in the Sirmaur region will witness a triangular fight with the entry of Karnesh Jung, a Congress rebel, in the fray. Senior Congress leaders, Manmohan Singh and Buta Singh, have campaigned for the party candidate, Rattan Singh, while Mr. Advani addressed a rally for the BJP candidate, Sukhram Chowdhary.

The prestigious seat of Nahan in Sirmaur will see a multi-cornered contest. Sadanand Chauhan, a wine contractor and official candidate of the Lok Janshakti, is giving a tough time to both the BJP and Congress candidates.

The Lok Janshakti chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, addressed a series of rallies here but Kush Parmar of the Congress may retain the seat by exploiting the legacy of Y.S. Parmar, first Chief Minister of the State.

The Congress appears comfortable in Nalagarh, Arki, Doon and Kasauli.

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