Congress, BJP brace for rebel impact in Himachal Pradesh polls

With the full impact of new entrant AAP yet to unravel, the rebels can definitely spoil the poll arithmetic in Himachal Pradesh

With only a few days to go for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, the rebel factor is wearing down both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress, with top leaders of both camps working overtime to blunt the impact of dissent.

Though both the parties have managed to quell the rebellion in some of the State's 68 seats, they had to crack the whip against certain unhappy former lawmakers and ministers who refused to toe the party line on official candidature.

Even after the efforts to edge out the in-house challengers, the Congress still has about a dozen rebels left in the fray and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has around 20 after the last date of withdrawal of candidature, which was October 29.

The BJP, which prides itself in discipline, has expelled five of its top leaders, including four former legislators and a vice-president of the party, for six years after failing to make them fall in line.

The Congress has similarly acted against six of its leaders, including a former minister and a former speaker of the State Assembly.

"The rebels will face the same fate as that of the four former MLAs and the State vice president. Dissidence will not be condoned," a BJP leader said.

The Congress too sounded firm on the issue. The grand old party, pitted against an aggressive, incumbent BJP, asserted that the rebels would bite the dust as they did not subscribe to the party's discipline and ideology and were like a rudderless ship.