Himachal Pradesh, which was given full statehood in 1971, has seen only five Chief Ministers — Dr Yashwant Singh Parmar, Ram Lal Thakur and the present CM Virbhadra Singh from the Congress, and Shanta Kumar and Prem Kumar Dhumal from the BJP.
For some strange reason, the state has always lacked leaders from the younger generation who could dare the old guard.
In the case of the Congress, Virbhadra Singh, who was in the Cabinet of Indira Gandhi, was para-dropped in 1983 to replace Ram Lal Thakur, who found himself in a controversy about a timber smuggling scam and was asked to step down. Since then, the Congress has not found a worthy successor to Virbhadra.
But exactly two decades ago, when the BJP wrested power from the Congress, the then general secretary of the BJP and Himachal Pradesh in-charge, Narendra Modi, who wanted to infuse fresh blood in the party, chose a younger person, Prem Kumar Dhumal, to challenge the supremacy of Shanta Kumar and helped him become the Chief Minister.
BJP President Amit Shah, thinking exactly in the same vein as Modi, has made up his mind to field Union Minister for Health Jagat Prakash Nadda as the face of the BJP in the forthcoming elections for the 68-seat Himachal Assembly. At one stage, Nadda, as the party’s General Secretary, was tipped to become the BJP National President, but eventually, it was Shah who was crowned.
Virbhadra has already announced his plans for a seventh term as the Chief Minister, but he is on a sticky wicket. He is 82 years old and his popularity has dwindled in recent times. He is facing corruption charges and a strong section in the Congress feels that Virbhadra's continuance will dampen the party's poll prospects.
The BJP has tactfully pitted Nadda against Virbhadra and the former, who at 56 is not only much younger than the letter, is also known for his organisational skills. Dhumal has not been keeping in good health and is 72 years old now. His son, former BCCI chief Anurag Thakur, has already been rejected by the party cadre as Dhumal’s successor. Nadda’s political grooming was done in Bihar, the hotbed of politics, and he was involved in Jai Prakash Narayan’s movement. Nadda, who is convent-educated like Virbhadra, has spent his entire youth in Bihar, where his father was the Vice-Chancellor of Patna University. He went on to become the BJP’s General Secretary from being a humble and dedicated Vidyarthi Parishad leader.
Having spent a large part of his life in Bihar, he moved to his native Himachal Pradesh only in the '90s and was an MLA and a Cabinet minister there for three terms. This shows his leadership qualities and his capacity to establish himself in a varied political environment — having been a swimmer in his youth, he knows how to swim against the tide. It is this leadership quality and political will that made Modi and Amit Shah choose him to lead the party in the Himalayan state.
...& ANALYSIS
- The advanced age of leaders has been a long-standing issue in Indian politics.
- The BJP is looking to capitalise on the fact that Nadda is significantly younger than the incumbent Virbhadra Singh.
- Nadda, moreover, has been an MLA and Cabinet minister for three terms in HP after moving there only in the 1990s, which is testament to his organisational skills.
- All of this puts Virbhadra on a sticky wicket.
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 "Jagat Prakash Nadda")
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