‘HP has Rs 1,50,000 cr in forest wealth, yet we are in debt. We should be compensated for our forests’

BSP has contested elections in Himachal for quite a few years but has never had any impact there. For the first time they have won an assembly segment, but that is an individual victory and not that of BSP. So I don’t think BSP has a role to play in Himachal Pradesh. In Himachal, politics are bipolar with clear alternatives: it has to be either BJP or Congress.

•SHISHIR GUPTA: What about the national level?

•SUMAN JHA: You and Shanta Kumar, although rivals, joined forces during the assembly elections, one of the reasons why BJP did so well in Himachal Pradesh. How was it decided that he would come to Delhi and you would be chief minister?

This is a misconception. Shanta Kumar and I have been working together in Himachal Pradesh for a decade. We have fought every election together against the Congress. Each political party has a number of leaders but everybody cannot become the CM or an MP. One cannot have a single-leader party. BJP has a number of leaders of equal status. Any one of them can be the CM and anyone can be in Lok Sabha.

•D.K. SINGH: BJP leaders at the state level want to function in an autonomous manner. But BJP believes in a centralised character for the party. How do you reconcile the two positions?

We have the most democratic set up and I work autonomously. No one interferes with my work. Narendra Modi consulted the state unit when he made the list of candidates for the assembly elections. It was okayed by the high command. In Himachal Pradesh, we went with a list of candidates to the central leadership and not a single one was changed. So there’s no such central intervention. Whatever the state governments say, the high command accepts. That is the most democratic way of working.

•SHEKHAR GUPTA: Unlike in most states, there is no tradition in Himachal of political parties filing cases against each...