The BJP which is already at an advantage, being the ruling party in the state and the Centre, is counting on poor development of the tough terrain during the long Congress rule coupled with the anti-Bharmouri trend in the constituency. Its candidate, Tulsi Ram, fought against Bharmouri four times but won the seat only once during the BJP wave in 1990.

Lalit Kumar of Shiv Sena and Prem Lal Thakur (Independent) are also in fray, while the HVC candidate, Kartar Singh has withdrawn in favour of the BJP nominee. All the candidates, except for Prem Lal Thakur (Pangi) came from the Bharmour area, constituting a vote bank of over 32,000 out of the total of 42,000 in the entire assembly segment.

Electioneering is in this tribal seat is in full swing keeping in view the significance of this particular election in deciding the fate of the Prem Kumar Dhumal government and that of former Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. But this din of electioneering is missing in Bharmour and Pangi (two distantly located parts of the assembly constituency connected with helicopter these days).

The Congress candidate had won the seat in 1993 as an independent --the party had denied him a ticket against Tulsi Ram -- by a margin of around 1200 votes. The official Congress nominee of 1993 election, Brahmanand and a close confidant of Bharmouri, Kartar Singh (HVC) have now switched their loyalties to the rival BJP.

Even though the Congress leadership, including former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, has focused the entire campaign on the bleak prospects of BJP to retain power in Himachal after June 3 to attract the tribal vote who normally vote for the ruling party, Bharmouri's ``stance of unnecessary victimisation of the poor people and the employees'' during his tenure has become the greatest stumbling block for the party. ``He never bothered to work development plans for the backward belts and remained pre-occupied with looking after the interests of a few of his henchmen'', comment some voters in Holi, Lilh, Bilj, Hadsar and even pockets of Bharmour.

Bharmouri's move to shift a number of government offices to his different buildings in Bharmour and his inability to bring this Gaddi dominated belt at par with other tribal segments of Kinnaur and Lahul -Spiti on development front has also invited the wrath of voters, who now see an alternative in the BJP leader, Krishan Kapoor from the Gaddi community, who has been given the cabinet berth with transport and tribal development portfolios.

Kapoor is moving around in a specific belt of Holi and Dragathi and has been able to build a sound base within the Gaddi tribe based in Bharmour through personal interaction. Says BJP campaign manager in Bharmour, Rakesh Pathania (Nurpur MLA), ``Our Major issue is the gross misuse of tribal development fund by Congress in the past. We have already achieved success in convincing the Gaddi tribals about BJP's concern by raising the compensation allowance(CA) for the thousands of daily wagers in the area to 25 per cent in one stroke, while Congress had deceived the tribals by striking off the CA completely few year ago''. On the other hand the Congress campaigner, Kuldip Pathania (Bhattiyat) feels that Congress enjoyed an edge over BJP as it had always taken care of the rights of Gaddis being in power in Himachal.

``It is an open truth that the network of roads and other facilities in this constituency is even better than parts of Chamba town, which is because of the extra interest taken by the Virbhadra government '', he says. The political situation in Himachal is not going to affect the results of elections in Bharmour and development by Congress is the main concern here, he adds.

Both the parties are hopeful of getting a lead in Pangi and have deployed separate campaign managers in the area. But it remains to be seen whether Pangi folks would again vote for the ruling party as per past trend, or the presence of a Congress rebel, Prem Lal Thakur would cut down the party vote bank it is being said.