After the embarrassment of having its chief ministerial candidate and its state party chief lose the race, the BJP has made up some ground in Himachal Pradesh by choosing Jairam Thakur to be the next Chief Minister of the state. The five-time MLA has the grassroots connect and can claim to have risen through the state BJP ranks, unlike a number of other local leaders in both the Congress and the BJP, who enjoy their current position in the party thanks to their lineage as against the work they have done on the ground.

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By naming Thakur for the post, the BJP has hopefully managed to eliminate the possibility of infighting. It was former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, who proposed his name and Union Health Minister J P Nadda who supported his candidacy. Both Nadda and Dhumal are considered to be rival within the state BJP framework. By having both of them back Thakur’s candidature, the perception is that the two camps will lend their full support to the man in the hot seat. Additionally, by appointing Thakur, the BJP has played a smart caste card.

The new CM is a Rajput – a caste that comprises 33 per cent of the population of the state. Additionally, the 52-year-old chief minister has burnished credentials. In 1998, he fought from the Chachiot Vidhan Sabha seat and defeated Congress’s top brass Moti Ram Thakur by 6,000 votes. After 1998, he managed to bulldoze his Opposition in 2003, 2007 as well as 2012 – clearly indicating that Thakur enjoys a solid popularity with the people. Thakur’s appointment also breaks a 24-year-old chain of the CM’s seat alternating between Congress senior leader Virbhadra Singh and Dhumal. It remains to be seen if Thakur can undo the anti-incumbency electoral pattern of Himachal Pradesh.