First take the Congress.

The party has been reiterating its resolve to oust the BJP from power even as it is plagued by the contradictions over its strategy to fight the BJP and its failure to reconstitute of the party’s state-level body. The statements made by Birender Singh, Congress General Secretary and in-charge of the state during his recent visits to the state reflect the contradictions, particularly on the crucial issue of spearheading the party’s election campaign.

On his visit to Palampur to attend the party’s convention, Birender Singh said that Union Minister Virbhadra Singh will be the party’s star campaigner in the 2012 elections. “Who else other than Virbhadra Singh, a five-time Chief Minister and now a Union minister, could be a better star campaigner in the elections? , he said. At the same time, he declared that the elections would be fought under collective leadership of state’s senior leaders and named Virbhadra Singh, Kaul Singh Thakur, Vidya Stokes and Sat Mahajan to be in-charge of Mandi, Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.

Birender Singh’s announcements were self-contradictory. If Virbhadra Singh is to be the state-level star campaigner, why has the party’s biggest vote-catcher, been made in-charge of only one constituency? Angrily reacting to degradation of his status Virbhadra Singh during his week-later Shimla visit, said “I can’t confine myself to Mandi. After all, I have a role to play in the entire state.” He said he was not taken into confidence before forming the committees. Significantly, the 77-year Singh also announced that he had no intention to contest the next Lok Sabha elections.

As in most other states, the Congress in Himachal suffers from cancerous factional politics. Even as its leaders have been declaring to launch a campaign to oust Dhumal from power, they have not so far been able to reconstitute the party’s state level body. Instead the followers of the rival leaders often quarrel with each publicly.

Like in the Congress, factionalism is also plaguing the ruling BJP. To give a free hand to Dhumal, the party’s central leadership had withdrawn his adversaries out of state politics appointing the former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar as party’s national Vice-President and J.P.Nadda as general secretary. However, their followers do not lose any opportunity to demonstrate their loyalties to their leaders.

The Chief Minister has also some vocal opponents in his party whose activities often create embarrassment for him. His star opponent is the party’s Kangra MP Rajan Sushant who has been publicly attacking the government and the Chief Minister. He has charged the government with “indiscriminately” sanctioning a large number of private universities which he describes as the biggest scandal and an attempt to commercialise the education with “dubious business motives.” He says that corruption is rampant in the state both at political and administration levels. The party has issued a show cause notice to him.

The Dhumal government cannot be unduly faulted for permitting the opening of private universities. Due to their financial constraints and also the need to provide higher avenues of education, many other state governments have also been allowing establishment of private universities. But Himachal government’s decision to permit opening of large number of private universities suffers from two drawbacks. Most of these universities have been set up in a single district– Solan. As the state’s comparatively under-developed upper areas do not have adequate avenues of higher education, they deserved more universities which the government has failed to provide them.

Besides, the already permitted private universities suffer from deficiencies which have also been pointed out by the Education Department’s report. The report revealed glaring deficiencies like lack of requisite faculty, well-equipped laboratories, libraries and other facilities. A few of them do not even fulfill norms of the land requirement, not to speak of the built-up infrastructure. The private universities also charge exorbitant fees which wards of poor parents cannot afford to pay.

More than the controversy over private universities, two other issues have soiled the Dhumal government’s image. One is the illegal sale of land to realtors and allowing them to build flats in thickly forested areas in tearing haste. The government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the sales but has not stopped the construction of the housing projects, particularly in the forest areas. As inquiries take long time to conclude, the constructions, if completed before submission of the inquiry report, there would be no option but to regularize them.

The second issue is giving 96 bighas of prime land at Sadhopur on the picturesque Kandaghat-Chail road to yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust for a meager Rs.17 lakh. The land was gifted by Maharaja of Patiala to the government to be used for the benefit of children and could not be given to any organization for carrying out commercial activities.

Ironically, the costly land leased to Ram Dev illustrates how the self-acclaimed yogis and spiritual gurus as symbolized by Ram Dev and Sathya Sai Baba are using their high-level contacts to amass huge assets.

In the background of the state of Himachal politics and the controversies hitting the BJP and Congress, it will be anti-incumbency, corruption and intra-party squabbles, more than the development issue, which will influence the electoral fate of the BJP and the Congress. Judged by these criteria, while factionalism and the image of the UPA-II will be the main factors which will affect the Congress’s poll prospects, the BJP’s electoral fate will be determined by all the three factors. (IPA Service)