Vote on issues

A high voter turnout marks the elections in Himachal Pradesh, where the bulk of the votes will be divided between the Congress and the BJP but neither can claim that it is comfortably placed.

in Shimla

IT was a highly enthusiastic electorate that turned up to vote in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections on November 4. The voter turnout, at 74.61 per cent, was one of the best in recent times. In 2003, it was 74.51 per cent when a Congress government was voted to power. In 2007, it dipped marginally to 71.61 per cent. In all, 459 candidates are in the fray for the 68-member Assembly, compared with 336 in 2007 and 408 in 2003. In the outgoing Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had 43 seats, the Congress 21, the Bahujan Samaj Party one, and independents three.

The main contest is between the ruling BJP, led by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, and the Congress, which have put up candidates in all the seats. Whether the BJP will return to power will be known only on December 20, after the Gujarat elections are held. The State has never repeated a government since 1977. There is nothing on the ground to suggest that this trend may be reversed though there may be some surprises in store. Despite both the parties employing a bevy of star campaigners, there appears to be no palpable wave in favour of either party.

Although the Congress should be the obvious beneficiary of anti-incumbency, the rise in the prices of essential commodities, corruption scandals, and the United Progressive Alliance governments decision in September to restrict the supply of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders to six per household in a year and hike the price of non-subsidised cylinders left the party with grim prospects. (The Centre has since decided to review the cap on LPG cylinders.) In all likelihood, the bulk of the votes, as in previous elections, will be divided between the Congress and the BJP, with other parties garnering a not-so-significant but noticeable share.

The high voter turnout is not seen as something unusual as the State has a literacy rate of 83.78 per cent as per Census 2011. Voter turnout in the State has always been above 60 per cent, with some constituencies even recording higher percentages. An even more interesting aspect is that despite the inhospitable and difficult terrain, voter turnout has always been high in the State compared with regions that are geographically less difficult. One plausible reason for the high turnout is the presence of a third alternative, the Himachal Lok Morcha (HLM), represented by the Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India. The HLM, formed on July 12, projected itself as totally different from the two main parties. According to Dr Omkar Singh Shaad, district secretary of the CPI(M) unit in Shimla, the HLM constituents have agreed on a 20-point common programme. The Morcha organised joint rallies against the government in August.

The HLP was founded by Maheshwar Singh, a former BJP Member of Parliament who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2008. Maheshwar Singh, a known detractor of the Dhumal government, quit the BJP after repeated attempts by him to get the central leadership to take action on corruption charges against some Ministers went unheeded. His brother, Karan Singh, is the Congress candidate from Banjar.

Elections in the State have by and large witnessed straight contests barring a few occasions when a breakaway group ate into the vote share of the two main contenders. More often than not, the breakaway groups, such as the Himachal Vikas Party (HVP), formed by former Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram, have merged with the parent party subsequently.

Maheshwar Singh, however, seems determined not to go back. The BJP is offering allurements, such as free induction stoves, in order to counter the cap on LPG cylinders. I wonder if this constitutes electoral malpractice. It offered CFL [compact fluorescent lamp] bulbs during its tenure, an experiment that failed. People were told to deposit their old bulbs in return for CFL bulbs. But no one has explained what happened to those old bulbs, said Maheshwar Singh. He said that while the State was self-sufficient in electricity, power cuts were common in many areas, especially in the higher reaches and in the tribal areas.

How will an induction heater work when there is no power supply? And who will pay the rising power bill? he asked. The HLM, he said, if elected to power, would give a transport subsidy on the LPG cylinders, especially in the remote areas where the cost of transporting cylinders to homes rests on the consumer. He said nationwide there was a tilt towards parties other than the Congress and the BJP.

Triangular contests in almost all the constituencies have made the elections interesting. Almost a dozen rebel candidates from the Congress and the BJP are in the fray. There are seven or eight contestants in almost every constituency. Voters appeared determined to vote for the candidate and not so much for the party. They were unusually silent and were palpably angry with both the Congress and the BJP on many counts. People are fed up with both the [main] political parties. They feel these parties are two sides of the same coin representing corruption, price rise, etc. People have not been given an opportunity to elect any other party all these years, Maheshwar Singh told Frontline. The HLP has contested 38 seats, the CPI(M) 15, and the CPI six. Three independents backed by the HLM are also in the fray. In some constituencies, there were friendly contests between the HLP and the Left parties.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) fielded its candidates in 35 seats. The party, an ally of the Congress at the Centre, decided to go it alone. A new entrant in the fray is the Trinamool Congress, which fielded its candidates in 25 constituencies. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) put up its candidates in all the 68 seats, indicating its level of confidence in mustering a larger vote share this time. In 2003, the BSP had contested 23 seats and got less than 1 per cent of the votes polled. In 2007, it contested 67 seats and secured the third highest vote share. The partys candidates forfeited their deposits in 59 seats, but it managed to win one seat.

Apart from Maheshwar Singh, other prominent BJP rebels included former Forest Minister Roop Singh, who contested from Sundernagar; Rajan Sushant, a former BJP legislator who was denied the ticket and whose wife is contesting as an independent from Kangra; H.N. Kashyap, who was denied the ticket and is contesting from Solan; and Chet Ram, who joined the HLP and is contesting from Kinnaur.

The Congress has fielded veterans such as Ishwar Dass. Dass, who lost in the previous election, is contesting from Ani. At Kasaumpti, near Shimla, which is witnessing a four-cornered contest, the Congress rebel is a close relative of the Congress chief ministerial aspirant, Virbhadra Singh. In many of the seats, there are interesting triangular contests. In the Shimla Urban seat, Suresh Bharadwaj of the BJP, Tikender Panwar of the CPI(M), former Deputy Mayor Harish Janatha of the Congress, and Tarsem Bharti, a BJP rebel, are locked in a four-cornered contest. In 2007, Suresh Bharadwaj won with a narrow margin of 2,500 votes against Sanjay Chauhan of the CPI(M). Incidentally, Chauhan and Panwar were elected Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Shimla Municipal Corporation, the only city Corporation in the State, in the first-ever direct elections held in May.

Likewise, at Theog, former Pradesh Congress Committee president Vidya Stokes, now in her late 80s, faces her nephew, Rakesh Singha, of the CPI(M). Singha, a former legislator and a veteran trade union leader, is also the State secretary of the CPI(M). Other heavyweights in the fray include Rakesh Verma of the BJP, who was elected twice before from Theog as an independent.

No major caste arithmetic is at work in the State. It is an issue-based election.

The BJP government has had a lot to answer for on many fronts. The rampant allocation of land to 25 private universities, which had a high fee structure and had non-existent faculty, has rankled the local people. They are also upset that the universities mainly cater to the non-resident Indian population and people from outside the State. There is also much resentment that the Ninth Finance Commission did away with the special status enjoyed by the State thereby depriving it of any special Central package. The HLM made this a major issue. Some 825 primary schools were closed down on the plea that there were no teachers. There is a huge backlog of vacancies in the health services as well, said Shaad. Even the Congress manifesto alleged that surgical procedures were not being conducted in the State hospitals for want of qualified staff and that modern technology was not being used in the treatment of patients, forcing them to seek remedy outside the State. The Congress promised to provide super-speciality medical facilities all over the State.

Another election issue was the monkey menace. An unofficial census has noted that the State is home to some 4,50,000 monkeys, causing an annual loss of Rs.500 crore to the exchequer. Farmers face the brunt of the simian explosion. We were the first to raise the issue through our Kisan Sabha. Now all the parties seem to have it on their agenda, said Shaad. He said farmers were hiring hands to protect their crops from monkeys. The Kisan Sabha has demanded wages through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as compensation for the additional expense incurred by farmers. Even the wages under the MGNREGS are unrealistic. First, employment is only for 100 days. Only those who are really destitute opt for work under the scheme. The work assessment in the hills has to be commensurate with the labour involved. The labour costs are high in the State. In the apple season, the rates are around Rs.300 a day. No one would work for Rs.150 a day, said a farmer.

One other aspect that upset the voters was the accusations and counter-accusations traded between the Congress and the BJP. The nature of the accusations was too personal. Voters are cynical about the promises parties are making. There is no denying that unemployment was a serious issue in this election. So much so that even the Congress manifesto pointed out that posts lying vacant in government departments, boards, corporations will be filled up on priority so that thousands of unemployed youth get employment opportunities.

It also promised to regularise the services of people engaged on a contract basis in government departments, boards and corporations within a year under a standing policy applicable to all departments, boards and corporations. These are the issues that have been raised by the Left parties in the State time and again. The Left, in particular the CPI(M), has regularly raised the issue of abrogating the Fiscal Management and Budget Responsibility Act enacted by Parliament in 2003, which has as one of its objectives reducing and cancelling the number of government posts.

The BJP has started a smear campaign. Thankfully, people in the State are educated. They are aware that the BJP has failed on the performance front. Everyone is talking about corruption but it is not an issue. The biggest thing in favour of Virbhadra Singh is that the common man has faith in him. This is the last time he is contesting an election, he has said so himself. He has no interest in moving to the Centre. All Congress candidates across constituencies wanted him to campaign for them, Harsh Mahajan, former Cabinet Minister and chief spokesperson of the Congress, told Frontline.

Virbhadra Singh was made PCC president two months ago, and according to Congress workers, he has turned the tables around. There is no denying that the Congress at the Centre and other leaders of Himachal Pradesh do not take kindly to the Member of Parliament and five-time Chief Minister. But the irony is that there is no other alternative in the Congress. Virbhadra Singh has wide acceptability in the State organisation. Things have got better now for Vidya Stokes and Kaul Singh after Virbhadra visited their constituencies, said a Congress leader.

Congress leaders say the party has a clear edge but refrain from saying that it is comfortably placed. Neither of the two dominant parties is upbeat about getting a decisive majority. Their reactions, if any, have been restrained and with good reason. Contrary to what political parties and their spokespersons might say, and given the limited choice of parties, the silent and discerning voter of Himachal Pradesh may have voted with the issues in mind.

* * *LIVE BITES

'We are not voting at all. It is the talk of the townthe cost of domestic gas cylinders, the quality of rations, the hike in petrol and diesel prices. Both the parties are of the same kind. The BJP has promised induction stoves. What will happen if electricity rates are hiked? Who will pay for that? We are told that special utensils will be required for cooking [on an induction stove]. Are they going to provide us that as well? Instead of giving us LPG cylinders at cheap rates, the BJP has promised pilgrimage. The subsidised ration is unfit to eat. Those who run the depots behave badly with people. Those who dont have gas cylinders will cut trees for firewood and then they will be fined. They have asked us to deposit money in the banks to get a cylinder. Why is it that we have to choose between the two parties?

Sarita PanwarRetired government employee, Shimla Rural.* * *

'If we complain too much, they will disconnect whatever gas connection we have. One is promising induction heaters, the other says he will give us 12 cylinders. There are two things that everyone needs. Gas cylinders and rations. This is basic. The cost of every food item has gone up. The poor cannot even afford to buy milk for their children. Today, if I buy a cylinder at a non-subsidised rate, it is going to cost me almost Rs.900, including what I give the delivery man. They are abolishing government posts. The private universities do not take our children. In any case, we wont be able to afford the fees.

Poonam SharmaRetired government employee, Shimla Rural.* * *

'This is a multi-cornered and multiparty election. This is also the first time that we have seen the largest number of candidates filing their nominations for 68 seats. Independent candidates will eat into the votes of the Congress and the BJP, but the results are going to be in favour of either of these parties. Others may get a share. We fulfilled all that we promised in the last elections. We have discussed our forthcoming plans in the present manifesto on the basis of which we will come to power a second time.

Price rise is a big issue here and corruption and discrimination by the Centre is another major issue. We have offered induction heaters as an alternative to the cap on LPG cylinders, and such has been its effect that the Congress has put out advertisements countering our proposal. We are already providing electricity at subsidised rates so it will be affordable. The cost on the induction heaters will come to around Rs.150 a month for a family of five.

When the Congress was in power, it promised one job to each family. After five years only 3,386 jobs were generated. On the other hand, we never made any promises but after five years weve given employment to 50,000 people in the government sector. We also doubled the daily wage rates to Rs.150. There are around 40,000 daily wage earners in the government and 1.75 lakh labourers in the private sector. The MGNREGA is not an issue. No one is homeless or goes without food in Himachal Pradesh. Everyone has some land. Even a government employee has some land.

Praveen SharmaCampaign-in-charge of the BJP.* * *

Women do not feel safe anymore. There are a number of instances of chain snatching. People open liquor stalls in their homes with the connivance of the local police and it is very unsafe for us to walk through the areas where these outlets are located. The government is least concerned about these matters."

Pratibha Sharma A housewife from Kasaumpti.* * *

P.C. Kondal A factory worker, Parwanoo constituency.