Himachal gives a new lease of life to Congress!

Going by the electoral history of Himachal Pradesh, it never votes for the same government twice. People of the hill state
are very smart and outsmart the politician every time. The state is prosperous compared to many other states of India in
terms of its economic resources and self-reliant in the matter of power generation and mobilizes enough resources and
least unemployment. Interestingly, there is rarely a household that does not have a member of two in government, defence
or paramilitary forces employment while a majority of people living in remote areas enjoying ST status are well absorbed in
the Central government and its undertakings across the country.
Equipped with these advantages, the people of Himachal Pradesh avoid sticking to one political party and keep them
rotating in power. With the sagging fortunes in the last few years, the Congress' win in Himachal Pradesh that saved the
face of the party, which had its worst performance ever in Gujarat.
The Congress has a lot to be happy about. The win is impressive for a state unit that tends to fight among itself and
didn't have a chief ministerial face when it went to the polls. The tall figure of the late Virbhadra Singh was also missing.
One battle is over, and another is coming up. Leadership is still up in the air. In the coming days, hurt political egos could
show up in different ways. The party would always be thinking about how to keep the flock together. If the Congress's
central leadership deserves any credit for the Assembly election strategy, it's for staying out of the way and letting the rank-
and-file in each state set the tone and story of the campaign. The real test would be choosing the Prime Minister and
Cabinet members.
Seeing that people didn't like the current government, the Bharatiya Janata Party state leaders, led by Jai Ram Thakur,
pretty much left it up to Prime Minister Modi to do his thing. Because of how popular he was and how he made voters feel,
the party may have gotten a good number of seats in the 68-member House and a big share of votes for a losing party.
Three rebels from the BJP are among those who won. Disagreements also got in the way.
Even though it made a lot of noise, the new Aam Aadmi Party couldn't open its account. But by campaigning hard and
offering free things, it made sure that both the Congress and the BJP had to catch up or do one better. It didn't matter or
even become a topic of debate if the freebies made economic sense or could be used. Congress will have to work hard to
figure out who should be in charge, stay united, and keep its promises.
In a way, voters of Himachal, by keeping their tradition, have given a new lease of life to the Congress party despite all its
shortcomings. The win will also be important for the party, especially since its influence in the north has been falling for more than a
decade. But then, the Congress will have to fight hard for next year's Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
and Karnataka, where its leadership of the opposition is still being challenged by parties like AAP and other regional parties, and
where it's still too early to tell if the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra will pay off at the polls.