New Delhi: Amidst the tussle over the appointment of Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has lost weight in support of former state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti.
Satti, a third-time MLA from Una, defeated Congress’s sitting MLA Satpal Raizada this time by a margin of 1,736 votes. It was a sweet revenge for Satti, as the Congress had won the Una seat in 2017 after 15 years. He had lost the Una seat in 2017 by a margin of over 3,000 votes.
The reason behind Thakur’s support for Satti is the fact that Satti hails from the Una assembly constituency, which falls in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency, an area where the BJP was otherwise wiped out in this election.
Satti’s victory was the only bright spot for the BJP in Una district, where the Congress won four of the five seats. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur is the current Lok Sabha MP from Hamirpur. In the recently held assembly elections, none of the BJP candidates could win from the parliamentary constituency.
Himachal BJP sources said the appointment of Satti as the leader of the opposition in the state could also counter the Congress’ strategy of making Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, who like Satti, is from the Hamirpur constituency and a dominant Rajput community, as chief minister. are from , However, the BJP’s central leadership will take the final call, sources said.
counter to congress strategy
Satti, who became MLA for the third time from Una, defeated Congress candidate Satpal Raizada by a margin of 1,736 votes in the assembly elections.
Satti’s appointment as the Leader of the Opposition in the state could prove to be a counter to the Congress’s strategy of making Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu the chief minister.
Satti is also from Hamirpur block and belongs to prominent Rajput community
