In another four days, Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh will hold a by-election for a Lok Sabha seat, one that Prem Kumar Dhumal won less than a year ago but quit after becoming the state’s chief minister in December 2007.

The poll is important for a number of reasons. This is Dhumal’s first popularity test after he led the BJP to a spectacular victory last year. Dhumal’s hold over Hamirpur — a mid-hill district — has strengthened over the years. The constituency that extends over the districts of Bilaspur, Una, Hamirpur and Kangra, had been a Congress bastion till Dhumal started nurturing this ex-servicemen- and farmer-dominated belt. It’s due to his efforts that Hamirpur switched its loyalty from the Congress to the BJP.

But this time the battle in Hamirpur is a bit different. This year, Dhumal’s son Anurag Thakur, 34, has jumped into the election fray, contesting from Hamirpur on a BJP ticket. For Dhumal, it’s important that not only his son win, but that he also maintains his winning margin. In the previous election, Dhumal had won this seat by a record 80,000 votes, turning around the fortunes of the BJP in Himachal. His victory was a big blow to the Congress, which lost the 2007 Assembly elections.

This is the second by-election in Hamirpur in two years. Last year the seat fell vacant after BJP MP Suresh Chandel was expelled along with nine other MPs in the cash-for-query scam. Anurag Thakur could have become the BJP’s candidate then but neither Dhumal nor the party was willing to take any risk in an Assembly election year. If Thakur wins now, Dhumal would have secured this seat for the future and would have successfully launched his son.

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