Work towards making India Congress-free, says Nadda

SHIMLA:PUTTING aside its internal squabbles, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday presented a united front while welcoming the party's working president Jagat Prakash Nadda, who is visiting his home town in Bilaspur for three days.

Nadda flew to Anandpur Sahib with chief minister Jai Ram Thakur from Delhi in the morning and paid obeisance at the Naina Devi Shrine before addressing the rally. Nadda received a rousing welcome at Bilaspur.

The BJP top brass, including state party chief Satpal Singh Satti, Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs Anurag Thakur and former chief minister Prem Kumar attended the rally. However, former chief minister Shanta Kumar was conspicuous by his absence.

Speakers at the ‘Abhinandan rally’ sang paeans for Nadda, who in turn credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union home minister Amit Shah for setting new benchmarks of development in the country and strengthening the party.

Lauding abrogation of Article 370, Nadda said, “The world has acknowledged the strong and able leadership of India. It was under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Article 370 was abrogated in J&K, paving way for ‘one nation, one Constitution’. The article was a hurdle in the development of Jammu and Kashmir.”

He also gave a clarion call to BJP workers asking them to make India Congress-free in the next 25 years.

Nadda said Modi had ensured that politics was aimed at serving the nation and its people and that India was poised to emerge as New India under the BJP, which had has become synonymous

with development.

CONG ACCUSES CM OF POLL CODE VIOLATIONS

DHARAMSHALA:HIMACHAL Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore on Monday accused the ruling BJP of misusing government machinery during the byelections in the state.

Rathore alleged that chief minister Jai Ram Thakur went to receive Nadda, who was on a three-day visit to his home state, in a helicopter on Monday.

“This is blatant misuse of government machinery and a poll code violation,” said Rathore.

Congress will ask the Election Commission to take cognisance of the matter, said Rathore.

“The BJP also put up its posters and flags on government buildings, which also violated the poll code,” he alleged. Rathore also hit out at the Bjp-led central government for pushing the country into an economic mess.