By
B.Venkateswarlu

New Delhi: The BJP's victory chariot moved into Himachal Pradesh on Friday with the saffron party making a clean sweep in the Assembly elections, winning 41 seats in the 68-member Assembly.

It's the best-ever performance by the BJP in Himachal with the party increasing its vote share by nearly 12 per cent. The man leading the onslaught, Prem Kumar Dhumal, will now become the chief minister of the state for the second time. He is likely to be sworn in on December 30.

After a handsome performance in Gujarat, the BJP comfortably dislodged the ruling Congress, which finished with just 23 seats. The Congress lost the battle at the hustings on the twin issue of anti-incumbency and corruption.

The BSP, which played the spoiler for Congress by cutting into its traditional vote bank of dalits, made its debut in the state winning one seat while Independents took away the remaining three.

The Congress, which went to the polls under the leadership of grand old man of Himachal politics and five-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, suffered on BJP's campaign plank of corruption, price rise and unemployment.

Three ministers bit the dust in the hustings while Singh survived the saffron sweep retaining his Rohru seat in Shimla district winning by a margin of 14,000 votes. The defeated ministers were Raj Kishan Gaur(Agriculture), Ramlal Thakur(Forest) and Kuldeep Kumar(Industries)

The BJP has returned to power in the state after a gap of 5 years. With this win, the saffron rule has spread to almost the whole of North India. The party already has governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat. Its alliance partners in NDA rule the states of Orissa, Bihar, Punjab and Nagaland.

The Congress downplayed its defeat in Himachal Pradesh, citing 'anti-incumbency' as the single largest factor that went against it.

Congress leader and Union Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said the anti-incumbency factor had worked against the Virbhadra Singh Government, despite the fact that it had undertaken many development works during the last five years.

Both Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh (Rohru) and BJP's chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal (Bamsan) emerged victorious. Former minister JP Nadda won for BJP from Bilaspur.

BJP's chief Ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal gave full credit for his victory to the party in the state. He was being quizzed about whether Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had helped swing the tide in the BJP's favour in Himachal as well.

Dhumal(63), a professor of English literature, who was named as BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate, led the saffron surge winning from Bamsan in Hamirpur district beating his schoolmate and Congress candidate retired colonel BC Lagwal by 26,000 votes.

Dhumal, who also represents Hamirpur in Lok Sabha, is likely to be chosen as the leader of the BJP's Legislature Party tomorrow and may be sworn in for a second term as Chief Minister on Sunday.

However, he says Narendra Modi is his close ffriend and that Modi has been guiding them. “He played his part in Gujarat, however, in UP, we did our best,” adds he.

Dhumal also clarified that there is no love lost between him and former BJP chief minister Shanta Kumar. “We were always together and we are together,” says Dhumal

Source:http://www.ibnlive.com/news/bjp-sweeps-himachal-pradesh-assembly-polls/55141-3.html