As the campaign picks up in Himachal Pradesh for Lok Sabha polls on 19 May, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) banks more on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and its ruling status in Himachal Pradesh than the candidates.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who is leading the campaign for the first time in the state, has been consistently listing Modi’s qualities as Prime Minister vis-a-vis Congress leadership in all his poll rallies, even in remotest of areas, while asserting that its “Modi again” in India in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Sensing that here are over four lakh families of serving soldiers, paramilitary forces and ex-servicemen in Himachal, Thakur is terming Modi as a strong leader with a subtle indirect reference to terrorism and Indo-Pak issues. Along with national development in Modi’s rule, that he says has taken India to the forefront on the international platform, the Himachal CM also enumerates BJP government’s achievements in HP in over one-year of rule.

One issue that figured in 2017 Assembly polls on the need for “double engine” by electing BJP in the state as well is now being used in a reverse manner.

“All of you understand that how the state will benefit if BJP is elected in centre as well. This will expedite development,” the CM tells people.

The BJP MLAs, 44 in number out of 68, are toiling hard in this protracted poll battle (with voting scheduled in the last phase), trying to impress people with their ruling status and related advantages.

“The factor that BJP government will be there for over three-and-a-half years in Himachal matters a lot in Lok Sabha polls,” shared some BJP leaders.

The hill state has four Lok Sabha seats, Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur and Shimla (reserved). Congress and BJP are the two main political parties here, with no third option. Since 1985, whichever party is in power in HP (Congress and BJP alternatively), it gets more seats.

The electoral performance has usually settled at 3 for the ruling party in the state and one for the opposition, out of four seats. 2014 election was, however, an exception, when the BJP, despite in opposition in Himachal, had won all the four seats in “Modi wave”.

In 2014, even the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife, sitting MP Pratibha Singh, had lost the election from a first-time candidate Ram Swaroop Sharma.

The party, which certainly enjoys the advantage of being in the ruling in 2019, has fielded two sitting MPs, three-time MP in a row, Anurag Thakur in Hamirpur and one time MP, Ram Swaroop Sharma, in Mandi.

The BJP has preferred two new faces for the Lok Sabha polls 2019, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Kishan Kapoor (Himachal) in Kangra and MLA, Suresh Kashyap, in Shimla (reserved).

Out of four seats, Hamirpur and Mandi are prestigious in their own way. Poll results in Hamirpur will decide the fate of the family of former CM Prem Kumar Dhumal in Himachal politics as three-time MP Anurag Thakur (Dhumal’s son) is seeking re-election. Dhumal had lost the election in 2017 Assembly polls.

Poll outcome in Mandi Lok Sabha seat, which houses CM Jai Ram Thakur’s home district Mandi, will reflect on CM’s popularity. Thakur is a first time CM and all eyes are on his leadership capacities now.

“Our slogan is ‘Abki Bar Phir 4 ki 4’. We will repeat 2014 as people of Himachal respect Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They will vote in his name. Even otherwise, the people look to central leadership in Lok Sabha polls,” said state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti.