Dhumal out of his mentor Shanta’s shadow

Prem Kumar Dhumal, set to become HP CM for a second time, has demonstrated that he has come out of the shadow of his mentor Shanta Kumar.

Considered close to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Prem Kumar Dhumal, who is set to become Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister for a second time, has demonstrated that he has come out of the shadow of his mentor and veteran party leader Shanta Kumar.

Popularly known as “sadak wala mukhya mantri” for a number of road projects he took up in Himachal during his previous tenure, Dhumal became the chief minister for the first time in 1998.

This time he was locked in a contest with his schoolmate Col B C Lagwal from the Bamson assembly seat, and he scored a hat trick.

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Party sources say when Narendra Modi was the party in- charge of Himachal Pradesh from 1997 to 2001 he did not enjoy the best of relations with Shanta Kumar, a factor that helped Dhumal to rise in the state politics.

Kumar had further distanced himself from Modi after his attack on the Gujarat Chief Minister at a party forum post-2004 parliamentary defeat of the BJP.

Dhumal has also been elected Lok Sabha MP thrice from Hamirpur (including the present tenure).

A law graduate and former English professor in Punjab University, the 63-year-old Dhumal belongs to Samirpur village of Hamirpur district. When BJP lost power in 2003, Dhumal became the leader of the legislature party in the Assembly.