Shimla: On a day of the much awaited cabinet expansion of the Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu led Himachal Pradesh government on Tuesday, one particular “inauspicious” room of the state secretariat allotted to one of the two newly inducted ministers remained the talk of the town-Room No 202. In the cabinet expansion carried out after almost a year of the Sukhu led Congress government, two new ministers got berths in Team Sukhu.
One of them, Rajesh Dharmani, got a room in the State Secretariat which would not be wrong if called 'inauspicious' going by the history of the ministers allotted this particular room. The Room No 202 on the second floor of the State Secretariat located in Shimla, the capital of Himachal, will now belong to the new minister of Sukhu Cabinet, Rajesh Dharmani.
After taking oath on Tuesday, Dharmani performed puja in room number 202 on Wednesday morning and assumed his chair in the room, which will be the office of the newly inducted minister. No matter how big and powerful a minister is, after being allotted Room No 202, he gets defeated in the next election. The interesting trend of ministers losing elections after sitting in this room is not new but has been going on for the last 25 years.
In Himachal Pradesh, after 1985, no incumbent party has been able to retain power in the state with the Room No 202 in particular proving to be a nightmare for the MLAs, who have been losing election every time they are allotted it since 1998. It is noteworthy that during the previous Jairam Thakur led BJP government, room number 202 was the office of cabinet minister Ramlal Markanda.
In the results declared on December 8 last year, neither BJP came to power nor Ramlal Markanda could win the election. Even veteran leaders of both the BJP and Congress have fallen prey to the “inauspicious” Room No 202. BJP national president JP Nadda, whose political innings started from Himachal won the assembly elections for the second time in 1998 after which he was also got room number 202 in Prem Kumar Dhumal's cabinet as Health Minister.
Nadda remained a minister for five years and lost the next election in 2003 from Bilaspur. Likewise, Asha Kumari, considered a strong leader of Congress got room number 202 after Nadda's exit. When Congress returned to power in 2003, Asha Kumari got this room as the Education Minister, but she too had to lose her ministerial post in 2005 in a land-related case and she too could not repeat her MLA position in the 2007 assembly elections.
In 2007, the crown of power slipped from the hands of Congress and came into the hands of BJP. Dhumal became the Chief Minister of Himachal for the second time and this time room number 202 went to Narendra Bragta as Horticulture Minister in the BJP government. This room proved to be a curse for him too and in 2012 Congress came to power.
When Virbhadra Singh returned to power in 2012, youth MLA from Dharamshala Sudhir Sharma was made Urban Development Minister and allotted room number 202. With the change of power, Sharma too had to lose power. It remains to be seen whether Rajesh Dharmani, who has been allotted the “inauspicious” room will break the myth come the next Assembly Elections.
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