: AAP set to disrupt HPs bipolar politics despite BJP poaching its local leaders #IndiaNEWS #National,Politics By Vishal GulatiShimla, July 17 (IANS) Elections to the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly

AAP set to disrupt HPs bipolar politics despite BJP poaching its local leaders #IndiaNEWS #National ,Politics
By Vishal GulatiShimla, July 17 (IANS) Elections to the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly are later this year and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), instilled with boldness after its resounding victory in neighbouring Punjab, is set to disrupt states bipolar political landscape dominated largely by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) despite attempts to weaken its base.
While the Congress, which is struggling to be a force to be reckoned with after the demise of its tallest leader and six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, the ruling BJP is banking largely on its double-engine government a phrase used to refer to BJPs helms at the Centre as well as state to return for a second consecutive term in the state that is known for a trend vote the BJP and the Congress to power alternately for a long, long time.
Sensing an anti-incumbency wave against the ruling evident from its loss of three Assembly and one parliamentary seat in the October 2021 bypolls, AAP is losing no time in stepping up its electioneering in the backdrop of its performance of creating excellent schools and hospitals and providing cheaper water and power in Delhi and Punjab and building a narrative that they dont know how to do politics, but how to do work and wipe out corruption.
By projecting itself as an alternative to the BJP and the Congress both, AAP officially launched a poll campaign with a mega road show by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart, Bhagwant Mann on April 6 in Mandi, the home turf of Chief Minister Jairam Thakur.
Last week the Kejriwal-Mann duo participated in Tiranga Yatra in Palampur, their second visit to the state within a month.
Sensing threat in a state that follows the two-party system with no space for a third one, the saffron party is trying to weaken AAPs base by joining its top state leadership into the party fold.
AAPs state president Anup Kesari, state women wing chief Mamta Thakur, state general secretary Satish Thakur, Una district chief Iqbal Singh are among those who recently joined the BJP.
The BJP is also facing dissidence with its former state president and former Cabinet minister Khimi Ram joining the Congress. State Congress president Pratibha Singh said more are eager to join their party as they were feeling suffocated in the BJP.
Himachal Pradesh, one of the most literate states, is traditionally dominated by the Congress and saw its first non-Congress chief minister, Shanta Kumar, in 1977, when the Janata Party came to the helm.
Political insiders told IANS that AAP is relying largely on dissidents from both the BJP and the Congress. The prominent include legislators Anil Sharma and Ramesh Dhawala, who are disgruntled for being ignored in the BJP.

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