MAJOR (retd) Vijay Singh Mankotia, who left the Congress to hitch the BJP Tuesday, has had a love-hate relationship with the Congress – repeatedly leaving its ranks, solely to make his means again.
Recognized to have a cordial relationship with Sanjay Gandhi, who died in 1980, Mankotia first gained an election as an Unbiased from the Shahpur Meeting seat in 1982. In 1985, he joined the Congress and gained the seat once more that yr.
Nevertheless, quickly after the Congress led by Rajiv Gandhi misplaced energy on the Centre, Mankotia crossed over to the Jan Morcha of V P Singh – the person who had triggered Rajiv’s defeat together with his Bofors scandal marketing campaign.
Mankotia helped set up some floor for V P Singh in Himachal. And within the Meeting elections of 1990, he gained Shahpur on a ticket of the Janata Dal, which was fashioned by a merger of the numerous Janata Celebration factions, together with V P Singh’s outfit.
In 1993, by which period the Janata Dal had splintered again into teams and misplaced energy, and the Congress had been again on the Centre for 2 years, Mankotia returned to the Congress.
The identical yr, he gained from Shahpur once more. He grew to become the state’s Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister underneath then Chief Minister Virbadhra Singh, however was dropped in 1997, a yr earlier than his time period accomplished, after he alleged that ministers near Virbhadra have been concerned in corruption.
Within the 1998 elections the next yr, following a short-term negotiation with Virbadhra, Mankotia contested from Shahpur once more, however misplaced. The Congress additionally misplaced energy and the BJP fashioned the federal government underneath Prem Kumar Dhumal.
Within the 2003 elections, after he had retained Shahpur, Mankotia was appointed the Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister once more as a way to maintain the peace between him and Virbhadra, who had returned as CM. The truce didn’t final as Mankotia was dropped from the ministry in 2004. The rationale this time was the 91st modification to the Structure, which restricted the power of ministries to one-tenth the dimensions of the Meeting. Three ministers have been let go, and Mankotia was one among them.
In 2007, with a yr to go for the Meeting polls, Mankotia once more left the Congress, over heightened stress with Virbhadra.
Accusing the latter of corruption, Mankotia even launched audio tapes of purported conversations of Virbhadra and his spouse Pratibha Singh with industrialists relating to large-scale monetary transactions. The matter went to the Excessive Court docket, which acquitted Virbhadra.
Mankotia joined the BSP in 2007 and contested from Shahpur however misplaced. Forward of the 2012 Meeting elections, he was again within the Congress, however misplaced once more. In 2016, he was appointed chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Board and was, as soon as once more, dropped from the put up when he made feedback in opposition to Virbadhra in relation to the CBI investigation of a high-profile disproportionate belongings case that the CM was concerned in.
Because the controversy spiralled, he left the get together once more and unsuccessfully contested the 2017 Meeting polls as an Unbiased.
In 2020, Mankotia discovered himself on the centre of an argument another time, when he alleged that sitting Shahpur MLA Serveen Chaudhury, a minister within the Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP authorities, was concerned in buying massive tracts of land illegally. Mankotia had been going through off in opposition to Chaudhury within the Shahpur seat because the Nineties.
Now, in fact, Mankotia and Chaudhury are on the identical aspect. And Chaudhury has received the BJP ticket from Shahpur.
Talking about his determination to hitch the BJP, Manoktia stated: “I’m now a BJP employee. Solely Narendra Modi can lead us within the 2024 elections. Serveen (Chaudhury) and I may need had variations, however I would now marketing campaign for her if the get together excessive command asks me to.”
Former Congress MP Viplav Thakur stated the get together was not nervous. “Mankotia has no ideology. He has misplaced the belief of the folks of the state. His transfer to the BJP could have no impression.”