BJP talks against ‘Parivarvad’, indulges in the same in Gujarat, Himachal
The party has filed 40 candidates hailing from different political families for the upcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party, which accused Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) President and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao of promoting nepotism and dynasty politics in Telangana, has now itself fielded at least 40 candidates hailing from different political families for the upcoming Assembly elections being held in the Prime Minister’s home State of Gujarat and its neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.
In over 50 out of 182 seats in Gujarat, candidates who have political leaders in their immediate family are on the ballot. Of these, more than 30 candidates hail from the BJP including those who were inducted from the opposition Congress.
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Ironically, Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the prevalence of dynasties and nepotism in politics during his Independence Day speech in August this year and also during his recent visit to Telangana, speaking out against what he called ‘Parivarvad’. He urged people to defeat the menace of nepotism in politics which he termed was breeding corruption and also destroying other institutions.
Yogendrasinh Parmar, son of former MLA Ramsinh Parmar, is being fielded from Thasra in central Gujarat. Similarly, in the Chhota Udepur seat reserved for Scheduled Tribe communities, the BJP has fielded Rajendrasinh Rathwa, whose father and senior-most legislator Mohansinh Rathwa, had defected from the Congress to the BJP.
The party has also fielded Mansinh Parmar, nephew of former MLA Govind Parmar, from Veraval. The BJP candidate from Manavadar is Jawahar Chavda, another Congress veteran who had shifted loyalties to the former in 2019. His father Pethalji Chavda was a well-known politician.
In Saurashtra, sitting Congress MLA Bhaga Barad who defected to the BJP, is being fielded again from his Talala seat. Barad too hails from a political family where his late brother was a Congress veteran. From Deesa constituency, the BJP is fielding Pravin Mali whose father was also a Minister in the Gujarat government.
Unashamedly, the BJP also chose to field spouses of its party leaders where the latter could not contest the polls due to various factors. After its legislator Jarajsinh Jadeja was implicated in a murder case, the BJP fielded his wife Gitaba Jadeja from Gondal segment in 2017 and had retained her as the party candidate for the ensuing elections. In the Bhavnagar East seat, the BJP fielded Sejalben Pandya, whose husband Rajiv Pandya is the Bhavnagar city BJP president.
In Himachal Pradesh too, the BJP accommodated he family members of established leaders with more than 15 of the 68 candidates hailing from politically affluent families where majority of them replaced the sitting legislators to avoid anti-incumbency. The BJP replaced Himachal Pradesh Jal Shakti Minister Mahendra Singh Thakur, with his son Rajat Thakur from Dharmapur constituency.
In two other cases, wives have replaced husbands. The BJP has fielded Maya Sharma, Mahila Morcha State executive member and wife of former MLA and current BJP district president Baldev Sharma, from Barsar. Similarly, Neelam Nayyar, wife of sitting BJP MLA Pawan Nayyar was given the ticket from Chamba.
Interestingly, BJP leader Praveen Sharma filed his nomination from Mandi Sadar as an independent candidate, accusing the leadership of promoting family politics against the party’s ideology. He will contest against sitting MLA Anil Sharma, who is the son of late former union Minister Sukh Ram. Anil Sharma has been striving to promote his son Aashray Sharma and carry forward the dynasty politics.
Among the other political scions that the party has nominated is Anil Dhiman, son of the late former Education Minister Ishwar Dass Dhiman, from Bhoranj. Rajesh Kashyap, brother of two-time MP from Shimla, Virendra Kashyap, is also being fielded from Solan segment. In Hamirpur, the party gave the ticket to Narendra Thakur, son of late Thakur Jagdev Chand, a five-time MLA. Govind Singh Thakur, son of former Minister Kunj Lal Thakur will be contesting from Manali, a seat he has held since 2007.
The BJP leaders from the respective States have justified the decision stating that the candidate selection was based on several factors with winnability being the main factor. They even claimed that it was easy to criticise candidates as a dynast, but one must remember that they were being elected by the people in a democratic manner.
