English lecturer takes on 'Raja Saheb' in Himachal

APPLE COUNTRY: Known for its apples and serene hills, Himachal is gearing up for the Assembly polls.

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Keywords: Dhumal, Virbhadra

And trying to benefit from that is the BJP's projected chief ministerial candidate Dhumal, who was voted out of power five years ago.

A former college lecturer, Dhumal, 63, does not have an image as suave and urbane as Singh's but has his own earthy Punjabi-accented charm despite being a lecturer in English literature.

With an unassuming manner and quick to mingle with the crowds, he greets little known people by name and wins them over.

Dhumal spent his college and working years in neighbouring Punjab's Jallandhar city. He was a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Hamirpur, the place he hails from.

Unlike Singh's aggressive style Dhumal is seen as a soft leader, careful not to rub people the wrong way.

"When my government was in power I have carried out more development work in Rohru, the home constituency of Virbhadra Singh, than he does as chief minister. You can check the facts," Dhumal has been saying.

He has shown a remarkable ability to be in the good books of top BJP leaders like LK Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi.

This networking has helped him to become the chief ministerial candidate instead of his mentor Shanta Kumar, who lost out in the big race around a fortnight ago.

The second and last phase of the Assembly poll takes place Wednesday. Counting is to be held on December 28.

The first phase of polling for the three tribal seats of Bharmaur, Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur took place Nov 14 due to fear of early snowfall in the high mountains of the tribal belt.

According to Chief Electoral Officer Manisha Nanda, there are 4.47 million voters in the state for these 65 seats in the last phase of polling.

There are 324 candidates in the fray. The Arki constituency in Solan district has the largest number of candidates, nine.

While the BJP, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have fielded candidates for all seats, the Lok Janshakti Party is contesting 38 seats and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) six. There are also independents.

According to the official, there will be 5,934 polling stations Wednesday.

Polling staff and material are being airlifted to some of the snow-bound areas as these are cut off from the rest of the country by road.