'Jinxed' Shimla secretariat room 202: Any minister sitting here loses next election

Room number 202 on the second floor of the Himachal Pradesh secretariat in Shimla is the talk of the town these days. Since 1998, anyone allotted this room faced defeat in the next election. Everyone is curious who in the new Congress government would land in this 'jinxed' space.

Shimla: Shimla, a tourist place known for its scenic beauty also has an interesting "political superstition" associated with it. Amid cabinet expansion talks in the new Congress government led by Sukhvinder Sukhu, the talk in the state capital is about who will be allotted room 202 in the Shimla Secretariat. It is believed that whoever gets the room loses the next election.

According to sources, room number 202 on the second floor of the secretariat has not been lucky for the ministers since 1998 as all ministers who got it lost the next elections. Ramlal Markanda, MLA from Himachal Pradesh's Lahaul and Spiti, was made the Tribal Development Minister in the Jai Ram Thakur government. As a cabinet minister, he was also allotted room number 202. At that time, he said that he does not believe in such a curse or history. But in the current election, he was defeated by Congress's Ravi Thakur from the Lahaul and Spiti seats by 1616 votes.

The superstition started from 1998. When JP Nadda, who won the election for the second time from Bilaspur that year, was made the Health Minister in the Dhumal government, he too was allotted room number 202 and lost the election in 2003.

After Nadda's defeat, the room was allotted to Asha Kumari, the education minister of the Congress government. But due to a land-related case, first, she lost the ministerial post in 2005, and then in 2007, she lost the election to BJP's Renu Chadha.

In 2007, the BJP government was formed in Himachal and Prem Kumar Dhumal became the Chief Minister for the second time. This time room number 202 was given to Horticulture Minister Narendra Bragta and in the 2012 assembly elections, he too lost the election to Rohit Thakur of Congress.

Congress returned to power in 2012 and this time the room was allotted to Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma who lost the election from Dharamshala in 2017. After the Himachal Pradesh elections, the secretariat is being decked up for the ministers . It would be interesting to know who gets room 202.