Mayawati's?elephant? failed to climb the hills and the left'sred flag was unable to unfurl in the saffron current in Himachal Pradesh. Neither social engineering of Uttar Pradesh style nor slogans to save secularism paid dividends. The assembly elections in this region of the Himalayas once again proved that only two parties, BJP and Congress, have their permanent existence in the state. The dream to raise a third front also remained a dream. Bharatiya Janata Party very easily formed the government in the leadership of Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal after securing a comfortable majority.
This was the first election in this hill state when Bahujan Samaj Party brought the idea to capture power through its famous ?social engineering?. Km. Mayawati had her eyes on nearly 26 per cent dalit, 16 per cent OBC and 6 per cent tribal voters apart from a good chunk of other voters. The BSP fielded its candidates on all 68 seats with the claim that it would form the government repeating UP'sexample in the hills. Km. Mayawati handed over BSP'scommand to firebrand Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, a former minister of Virbhadra Singh government, who deserted the Congress to ride the elephant just before the elections. He was declared the chief ministerial candidate of BSP.
BSP did no ground work and depending only on the dissidents of Congress and BJP, it jumped into the fray at mass level. Perhaps Km. Mayawati thought that being a Rajput Major Mankotia, along with some other associates, would be able to manage to attract electoral from so-called upper castes and Dalit, OBC, tribal voters would automatically vote for BSP because of its pro-Dalit policies.
Km. Mayawati provided heavy financial resources to its state party unit to fight the election. BSP was the first party in this poll to use helicopter for aggressive campaign. When BJP and Congress got the chopper, Major Mankotia had already made more than one hundred sorties to address the rallies. Money was absolutely no problem for this party of the poor. Mayawati herself travelled in the far flung areas to woo the voters. She repeatedly quoted the example of UP where her concept of social engineering was a success and made her the Chief Minister of the biggest state of the country.
But this concept badly failed in this state. Some strong candidates of BSP were able to secure a good percentage of votes due to their own standing. They also made a dent on the vote bank of the party they left to join BSP. The party secured seven per cent of total votes polled but could win only one seat. BSP'schief ministerial candidate Major Mankotia also lost his election in Dharamsala constituency to Shri Krishan Kapur, former minister and BJP candidate, and was on third place.
It is pertinent to mention that in 16 reserved constituencies, the BSP proved to be a failure. Out of these seats, BJP got eight and Congress won seven seats. One seat went into the account of an independent candidate who declared his unconditional support to Prof. Dhumal after the results were declared. BJP increased its vote bank by 10 per cent in the reserved segments and managed to get 45 per cent votes. Congress got 38.49 per cent and BSP could secure only 4.64 per cent votes.
BSP was unable to save its security deposits in all the three seats of Kinnour, Bharmour, and Lahul- Spiti, reserved for the tribal. BJP bagged these seats, which were earlier considered as a strong hold of Congress. It was a major achievement of BJP. This is the first time that Lahul- Spiti seat has been won by BJP.
The only satisfaction to Km. Mayawati was the disturbances her party created in the political equations of Congress and BJP. The Congress and BJP lost nine and seven seats respectively due to the BSP candidates. In the last assembly elections in 2003, BSP had secured only 0.7 per cent votes. This time it improved its vote percentage by ten times. One very interesting incident took place just before the date of polling. Shri Balwant Singh, president of state BSP, resigned from the party and leveled serious allegations of corruption against Sardar Mansingh Manhera and Major Mankotia. It created a peculiar situation for BSP and proved to be a jolt.
The left parties, CPM and CPI also fought election in 12 assembly segments. CPM fielded its candidates in five and CPI in seven constituencies. Some stalwarts of the left including Shri Prakash Karat, Shri Sita Ram Yechuri and Smt. Subhashi Ali scaled through the hills physically to mobilise the electoral. But all the left candidates, except one at Shimla, forfeited their security deposits. Lok Janshakti Party also tried it fate in 38 seats but resulted in failure. There was total polarisation of voters between two parties as BJP got 41 and Congress 23 seats. One seat was won by BSP and three by independents. It is clear that the third force could not emerge this time also.
