Himachal Polls: Two political families battle it out in Mandi. Can Sukh Ram's son win?

Star power

The general belief is that it was Bollywood star Salman Khan who had played a role in brokering a deal between the Sukh Ram family and the BJP, thanks to his good relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Salman's sister is married to Anil Sharma's son.

The local residents were expecting a Salman Khan road show in the constituency and are pretty upset that this did not happen. This town in Himachal is known for its penchant for Bollywood and fashion.

The Congressmen are seething over Sukh Ram having again 'ditched' the party at the eleventh hour. They are pointing towards the 1998 polls when Sukh Ram had floated the Himachal Vikas Congress (HVC) to join hands with the BJP and help it come into power.

It was just a few months later that his disenchantment with the BJP had started and he had eventually come back home to the Congress even as the BJP government led by Prem Kumar Dhumal had lasted the complete tenure.

“He has never been loyal to anyone. There is no end to his greed for power. His son was a minister in the Virbhadra government. All his work was being done. What else does he want? His pretext of leaving the party on the grounds that he was not getting due respect and was being humiliated is frivolous,” says an angry Kundan Thakur, a one-time close associate of Sukh Ram who had helped the latter form the HVC.

But Sukh Ram still commands a lot of respect even among his rivals. Even those campaigning for the Congress talk about him with respect while expressing their annoyance of his having jumped over to the BJP.

“He always had a lot of potential to work for the constituency and he displayed it while being both a member of the assembly and the parliament. He knows how to make his way up. This region was very remote and people led a very tough life but it was Sukh Ram who made a tremendous contribution in improving the lot of the people. But his greed for power nullifies all that,” acknowledges Kundan.

Sukh Ram has always been at logger heads with Virbhadra who along with his wife Pratibha Singh have also represented this Lok Sabha constituency.

The people of this region always wanted that Sukh Ram lead them as the chief minister but this never happened because of Virbhadra always scuttling any such move.

The issues that dominate these polls are local developmental ones like the building of new roads linking villages, providing parking facilities to the local residents, developing local tourism etc. The locals take pride in its march on the path of development.

“When India did not have shopping malls, we had the first open-air one in the form of Indira Gandhi market,” said a local resident.

The other side

Anil Sharma has been seeking votes in the name of the contribution he made in the development of the constituency.

But his rival is no pushover. She has been cornering him on the grounds of his changing loyalties and lack of vision. Champa is a three-time entrant to the Zilla Parishad and is the present chairperson. She is well versed with the local issues and is having a considerable clout across the constituency, particularly the rural areas.

Her father's image is also adding to her political weight. Her supporters have been quick to point out that after having enjoyed the luxuries of being a minister in the Congress government, Anil is now eying the same in a BJP regime.

Champa is also relying on the anger of the BJP rank and file that has deserted Anil over his candidature by the party.

“None of these two contestants can lay claim to having worked for the development of this constituency alone. It is a face-off contest for the clout of families,” says political observer Piyush Kumar. Mandi remains one of the contests to watch out for.

Edited by Jhinuk Sen