New faces of Congress, BJP in Palampur to face Rebel Parveen Sharma

Dharamshala, October 27, 2017: Brij Behari Lal Butail of INC( richest MLA in 2012 elections in the state who owned property of about Rs 150 crore besides other movable assets), is a top leader of Palampur the native place of two time Himachal CM and one of the main BJP leader of India Mr Shanta Kumar. BBL Butail has won this assembly seat 5 times out of the 11 elections held after inclusion of Kangra district in Himachal from Punjab in 1966. The Speaker of the last HP assembly ,BBL Butail lost once to Shanta Kumar BJP in 1990 and Parveen Sharma BJP(a leader carved out by Shanta), in 2007.
Parveen and Butail exchanged seats in 2007 and 2012 elections but both denied tickets by their parties for the 2017 elections. BBL sacrificed seat to his son Ashish Butail, but the Ex BJP leader Parveen Sharma refused to bent down to the desire of the party and even to his Guru Shanta and filed his papers as an independent candidate from Palampur assembly constituency in Kangra district. Shanta Kumar too lost an election on this seat.
BJP on the other hand decided to field its state president of Mahila Morcha Ms Indu Goswami, who claimed “ It is only me, who requested the national leadership of BJP to give at least 10 assembly seats to women in the current assembly elections and I am grateful to the national leadership of party that it has now given 6 assembly seats to women this time". Indu Goswami is said to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as she had worked with him during days when Modi was party in charge of Himachal.
The stage is now set for an interesting contest between two electoral debutants - Ashish Butail, son of Vidhan Sabha Speaker BBL Butail, and Indu Goswami, state BJP Mahila Morcha president.
While the Congress chose to put its bet on the tried and tested politically established Butail family by fielding the Speaker's son, the BJP chose to experiment with a new face -- Indu Goswami. Goswami has the tag of an outsider as she hails from the adjoining Baijnath constituency, which is reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate. In the Last elections of 2012 Sudhir Sharma ,son of Sant Ram Sharma top leader of Congress from Baijnath shifted to Dharamshala as Baijnath reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate and defeated local BJP hero and Gaddi leader Kishan Kapoor .
As Goswami has close links with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ,It is being expected that Modi will address a rally at Palampur in her support. However, the presence of former BJP MLA and a local, Praveen Sharma, in the fray as an Independent could dampen Goswami's prospects. He is close to Shanta Kumar and a lot will depend on the former CM's stance as Palampur is his hometown.
Ashish (39) has been entrusted with the responsibility of carrying on the political legacy of his family. His father is a widely respected leader with impeccable integrity, but the issue of the Congress promoting dynastic politics has miffed the party workers. Moreover, the Congress candidate could face opposition from Gokul Butail, his cousin and IT Adviser to the Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who too had applied for ticket but denied.
Below is the list of winners and runners-up in the Palampur assembly elections conducted so far

Winner votes Runners up votes
2012 Brij Behari Lal Butail INC 23341 Parveen Kumar BJP 14312
2007 Parveen Kumar BJP 25121 Brij Behari Butail INC 22533
2003 Brij Behari Lal INC 24333 Parveen Kumar BJP 17090
1998 Brij Behari Lal INC 18450 Shiv Kumar BJP 17658
1993 Brij Bihari Lal INC 21212 Shiv Kumar BJP 14702
1990 Shanta Kumar BJP 18012 Brij Bihari Lal INC 12050
1985 Brij Behari Lal INC 11722 Sarwan Kumar BJP 9137
1982 Sarwan Kumar BJP 10508 Kunj Bihari Lal INC 8762
1977 Sarvan Kumar JNP 9930 Bidhi Chand INC 7633
1972 Kunj Behari Lal INC 5296 Bal Singh Guleria IND 880
1967 K.B.Lal INC 5644 S Kumar BJS 472