New Delhi, Dec 25: The top BJP leadership on Tuesday asked Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his critic and Union Minister Shanta Kumar to bury the hatchet and jointly fight assembly elections in the state slated for early next year and warned dissidence would not be tolerated. Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and party President M Venkaiah Naidu held a meeting with Dhumal and Kumar here and discussed the strategy for the assembly elections. Kumar and Dhumal were asked to put aside their differences and campaign jointly in the interests of the party, BJP sources said.
A major fall-out of today's pep talk by the party leadership is that Shanta Kumar will join the "Vishwas Yatra" set off by Dhumal yesterday in a virtual launch of BJP's election campaign in Himachal Pradesh. However, Kumar was conspicuous by his absence from the Yatra launch on Sunday. "Just as the party unitedly fought the election in Gujarat, they should do the same in Himachal Pradesh. The Gujarat model of a united fight by the party which enabled it to get a two-third majority should be followed elsewhere too," Advani told reporters.
"The state leaders have been clearly told by the Central leadership that dissidence would not be tolerated under any circumstances and that it was in the interest of the party that state leaders should not air their differences openly but come together and present a united front," party sources said. Bureau Report