Shimla: BJP has succeeded in quelling the dissidence in Arki and Fatehpur Assembly constituency as it has succeeded in persuading Govind Sharma and Kripal Parmar from contesting elections.
After the denial of tickets, both Govind Sharma and Kripal Parmar had announced to contest by-elections as independent candidates. Govind has represented the Arki seat in 2007 and 2012, however, in 2017, even after being a sitting legislature, BJP had replaced him with Rattan Pal Singh, who lost the election to Congress veteran Virbhadra Singh.
From Fatehpur, perturbed Kripal Parmar had also announced to contest the election after snub from the party. Kripal had unsuccessfully contested the Fatehpur assembly election in 2017. BJP has declared Baldev Thakur its official candidate. Baldev had unsuccessfully contested the 2017 Assembly election from Fatehpur as a BJP rebel.
With the rebels in Fatehpur and Arki constituency decided not to contest the by-elections, the ruling BJP has breathed easy, however, BJP is still not in a good position in Jubbal-Kotkhai assembly constituency, where miffed Chetan Bragta has filed nomination as an independent candidate. It’s learned that the BJP has tried to convince him. Even Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur tried to assuage Chetan and urged him and his supporters to reconcile to the party decision.
Chetan has urged the party leadership to reconsider the decision and honour the demand of majority party workers of the segment.
