Himachal Pradesh leader of Opposition and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur has met disgruntled Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in his home turf of Mandi two days after party Lok Sabha candidate Kangana Ranaut launched her campaign for the June 1 elections.

Having been entrusted the role of keeping the flock together, Jai Ram met Maheshwar Singh, the scion of the erstwhile Kullu royal family who is a three-time MLA and four-time MP besides being a former state BJP chief with influence both in Kullu and Mandi. “Earlier, party office-bearers did not apply for the ticket, but now things have changed. Everyone is an aspirant. The party allots tickets to those who have hardly contributed to it. For now, I’m quiet but have conveyed my point to the former CM on forgotten promises,” Maheshwar said after the meeting.

“The BJP is a big family and one can have reservations, but every one will work together to strengthen the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Jai Ram.

Jai Ram later met Kargil war hero Brigadier Khushal Thakur, who had lost to Congress candidate Pratibha Singh by 7,490 votes in the Mandi parliamentary byelection in 2021 after the death of BJP’s Ram Swaroop Sharma.

“I have served army for more than 34 years and I am a loyal soldier of the party,” said Khushal.

The former CM met Manali municipal council chairperson Chaman Kapoor and former MLAs DD Thakur and Kanhaiya Lal, who were also in the race for the ticket.

Anil Sharma, a five-time MLA from Mandi and the son of former Congress leader Sukh Ram, has maintained silence and distance from Jai Ram. He, however, joined this meeting.

Dissident BJP leaders meet at Pandoh

A group of dissident BJP leaders held a separate meeting at Pandoh in Mandi on Saturday to plan their strategy for the Lok Sabha elections. The meeting was called at the behest of the former BJP MLA from Drang, Jawahar Thakur. It was presided over by Colonel Inder Singh, a former BJP MLA from Sarkaghat.

Former Kinnaur BJP MLA Tejwant Negi, former Ani MLA Kishori Lal, former HPMC chairperson Ram Singh from Kullu, former MP Maheshwar Singh’s son Hiteshwar Singh, former state secretary and media in-charge Praveen Sharma from Mandi were present. Barring Inder Singh and Jawahar Thakur, who were denied tickets in the 2022 assembly elections, all leaders had contested as Independents.

At epicentre of Congress rebellion

Jai Ram called on former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal at his house at Samirpur village on Sunday. The meeting comes as a significant development as Hamirpur has become the epicentre of Congress rebellion with six of the nine MLAs, Congress rebels and Independents, who voted for BJP’s Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls belonging to the parliamentary constituency. All nine of them later joined the BJP.

Mandi parliamentary constituency, the second largest in the country in geographical extent, has been often described as a battlefield of royals. In independent India’s maiden general elections, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, daughter of King Harnam Singh and scion of the princely state of Kapurthala, was elected from Mandi. The story of “royals” winning the seat continued over the years, with leaders such as Joginder Sen Bahadur, Lalit Sen, Virbhadra Singh, Maheshwar Singh and Pratibha Singh representing the seat.

Janata Party’s Ganga Singh, who defeated Virbhadra Singh in 1977, was the first from a “non-royal” bloodline to win from Mandi.