Here Is Why Union Minister Anurag Thakur Is Trending After BJP's Himachal Debacle

Himachal Pradesh Election 2022: Anurag Thakur, an MP from Himachal Pradesh, came under fire on social media from BJP supporters who blamed him for the infighting within the party.

Union Minister for I&B and Youth Affairs & Sports Anurag Thakur at Parliament.

Source : File Photo/PTI

New Delhi: The BJP and Union minister Anurag Thakur suffered a significant setback when they were unable to secure even one of the five Assembly seats in his home district, Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh. Anurag Thakur, an MP from Himachal Pradesh, came under fire on social media from BJP supporters who blamed him for the infighting within the party. This came after the BJP lost power in Himachal Pradesh to the Congress, somewhat undermining its mega win in Gujarat.

This time, Anurag's father, two-time Himachal chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, was not given a ticket by the BJP, which appears to have upset his supporters. Following Dhumal's defeat as the BJP CM candidate in the 2017 elections from Sujanpur in Hamirpur, the ticket was denied.

Thakur extensively campaigned in the Hamirpur district while he was in Himachal for the elections. The ancestral home of the Dhumal family is in the district's Samirpur village, and the 78-year-old, who has served as an MP three times, also ran for the party. Dhumal stated that he had suggested to the party that it should announce a return to the Old Pension Scheme for at least Class IV government employees in an interview with The Indian Express just prior to the release of the BJP's election manifesto.

The commitment to doing likewise for all workers is accepted to have been one reason for Congress' success.

In Hamirpur, Thakur's campaign pitch that the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre was responsible for a number of pro-people initiatives does not appear to have worked. He discussed the Modi government's revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir, the indigenous production of bulletproof jackets for the Army, Rafael aircraft, and the one rank one pension scheme.

Here's how people reacted on social media:-

In a head to head contest, in Nadda's state, in Anurag Thakur's state, against the might of the BJP's money, media and institutions, Priyanka Gandhi has defeated Modi.

— Dushyant A (@atti_cus) December 8, 2022

Choice of candidates by JP Nadia & Anurag Thakur is questionable

If a rebel is winning means the rebel was right candidate

Also the home state of BJP Chief Nadda? Any effects of that?

Look at the effect of Narendra Modi on his Home State Gujarat

If BJP means business then act

— Flt Lt Anoop Verma (Retd.) 🇮🇳 (@FltLtAnoopVerma) December 8, 2022

I am presuming C. R. PATIL new BJP president on card. Great leader with thumping majority in Gujarat. Anurag Thakur should be sacked from BJP for family politics over and above party lines.

— 🇮🇳🌞 GIREESH JUYAL 🇮🇳🌞जय श्री राम, (@juyal3405) December 8, 2022