(FirstPost)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched victory in Himachal Pradesh by a convincing two-thirds majority, winning 42 out of 68 seats. But it lost the one seat that really mattered: Sujanpur constituency, where the party’s chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal was contesting against Congress’ Rajinder Rana.
The BJP doesn’t usually name its chief ministerial candidate before an election unless it’s the incumbent party. For instance, Trivendra Singh Rawat and Yogi Adityanath were named chief ministers of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh only after the election results had been announced in favour of BJP. Even in Maharashtra, the party contested the Assembly elections in 2014 without naming Devendra Fadnavis as its chief minister candidate when polling took place.
But in Himachal, midway through the campaign, the party named Dhumal as its face. It also convinced the 73-year-old to give up his traditional Hamirpur seat in favour of Sujanpur. It was a decision that would ultimately cost Dhumal his job.
