Shimla (Himachal Pradesh): The voters in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh have been wearing their loyalties not on their sleeves but on their heads. The traditional 'Pahari topi' of Himachal Pradesh is considered by different political parties as a part of their identity. While in other states, voters may prefer to maintain silence about their affiliation to a political party, in Himachal, they pronounce their support and loyalty through their headgear.
If your cap is maroon in colour, then you must be a BJP supporter and if it is green, then you are with Congress. The concept of green and maroon stem from the upper and lower regions of the state respectively. Himachal Pradesh is geographically divided into two regions- upper Himachal and lower Himachal, which also constitute one of the determining identities in Himachal's politics.
The trend of wearing caps affiliated with political parties started with six-time Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who loved to don a green flap headgear. His supporters, thus, started wearing the same colour to express their solidarity with him. Similarly, Prem Kumar Dhumal, BJP leader and two-time Chief Minister of the state has made the maroon cap his trademark. Since 1985, no political party in the state has been able to stay in power for the next term and the colour of the caps kept changing.
If we look at the politics of Himachal in terms of geography, out of the six Chief Ministers, three including Yashwant Parmar, Ramlal Thakur and Virbhadra Singh belonged to upper Himachal whereas Shanta Kumar, Prem Kumar Dhumal and Jairam Thakur were from lower Himachal.
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However, with Jai Ram Thakur becoming the Chief Minister of the state in 2017, he decided to put an end to 'topi' politics in the state. He said, he is not just the Chief Minister of a particular region, but the whole of Himachal. Home Minister Amit Shah can also be heard saying "green cap is also ours, the red cap is also ours. The upper Himachal is also ours and the lower Himachal is also ours."
Himachal Assembly elections will take place on November 12. The results will be declared on December 8, the day that will decide which riot of colour will flutter in the secretariat.
