All in the family: BJP & Congress equally guilty of dynasty politics in Himachal

In the poll-bound hill state of Himachal Pradesh dynasty politics stands well-entrenched as the older politicians pave the way for their wards to take over their vocation.

While much noise is being raised around Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's son Vikramaditya Singh being fielded from Shimla (Rural) by the Congress party, dynasty politics is commonplace in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state as well.

The noise around Vikramaditya's candidature is that the Congress has once again thrown the 'one ticket per family' norm to the winds. But this was quite expected as Punjab, that went to the polls in February this year, was the only exception where this norm was implemented in letter and spirit.

In fact, this was one of the reasons that the second list of nine candidates was drafted by the Congress party high command. Both Virbhadra and his supporters had been contending that Vikramaditya had all rights to seek a ticket as he was the state Youth Congress chief and 'well deserving' besides taking into account the winnability factor.

It is not only Vikramaditya who figured in this second list. Health minister Kaul Singh's daughter Champa Thakur's name was also among those who got the ticket in the final list from Mandi constituency. In fact, reports say that Champa had gone on to file her nomination even before her name had been cleared by the party high command. Kaul Singh is fighting from Darang constituency.

If one looks at the lists of both the main political forces in the state, one comes across the names of wards of several political stalwarts, from both the parties, who are battling it out in the hills to become members of the new state assembly.

The most interesting scenario is on the Solan seat where the sitting Congress MLA and social justice and empowerment minister Colonel (Retired) Dhani Ram Shandil is pitted against his son-in-law Dr Rajesh Kashyap of the BJP.

Ironically, the BJP candidate is the brother of the sitting BJP Lok Sabha member from the Shimla seat, Virender Kashyap.

Similarly, Ashish Butail, the Congress candidate from Palampur constituency is the son of the outgoing Speaker Brij Bihari Lal Butail who did not want to contest this time. The party has fielded Vivek Sharma from Kulehar who is the son of a former deputy speaker Ramnath Sharma.

The Congress has fielded Ajay Mahajan from Nurpur constituency in Kangra. He is the son of the former minister and party veteran Sat Mahajan. Viplove Thakur is fighting from the Congress on Dehra seat of the district. She is the daughter of former Kulehar MLA Sarla Sharma and former CPI MLA Paras Ram.

The state's urban development minister Sudhir Sharma who is fighting from Dharamshala is the son of former minister Sant Ram and the Congress candidate for the Jaisinghpur seat Yadvinder Goma is the son of former minister Milkhi Ram Goma.

In Chamba district, the Congress has fielded political heavyweight Asha Kumari from Dalhousie who is the daughter in law of former MLA Devinder Kumari. The party candidate from Churah Surinder Bharadwaj is the son of former minister Vidyadhar.

In Sirmour district, the Congress candidate from Shilai Harshwardhan Chauhan is the son of former minister Thakur Guman Singh and the Renuka candidate Vinay Kumar is the son of seven-time MLA Dr Prem Singh.

The Congress candidate from Jubbal Kotkhai seat Rohit Thakur is the son of the former chief minister Thakur Ram Lal. In Solan district, the Congress candidate from Kasauli Vinod Sultanpuri is the son of six-time MP KD Sultanpuri. The Doon constituency candidate Ram Kumar is the son of former legislator Lajja Ram.

In Kullu district's Banjar segment, the Congress has fielded Aditya Vikram Singh who is the son of former minister Karan Singh. The party candidate for the Lahaul-Spiti seat Ravi Thakur is the son of former MLA Lata Thakur.

In case of the BJP, the most prominent dynastic face that the party as fielded is that of Anil Sharma who is the son of former union telecom minister Sukh Ram.

The party has also fielded Govind Thakur from Manali constituency. He is the son of former minister Thakur Kunj Lal.

The BJP's Hamirpur candidate is Narendar Thakur who is the son of the former party stalwart Thakur Jagdev Chand. The BJP has fielded Vijay Jyoti Sen from the Kasumpti seat of Shimla district. She is the sister-in-law of Virbhadra Singh and had joined the saffron party a few days ago after having unsuccessfully contested the last assembly polls unsuccessfully.

The story of BJP leaders Anurag Thakur who is the former Board of Control for Cricket in India and his father Prem Kumar Dhumal who is the former chief minister is already well known.

The people of the state are generally not happy with the trend of political power remaining with a few households in the state and other party workers not getting an opportunity to contest elections.

But there is a different point of view as well.

“If the wards of politicians work hard as the party men do to deserve the party tickets, there is no problem. But if they come as parachute candidates, it definitely is an unhealthy sign for our democracy,” said Pyare Lal, a Left activist.