In Himachal, electioneering warms up as Congress, BJP trade charges ahead of polls

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election and bypoll to six Assembly constituencies, the verbal duel between the leaders of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Congress has intensified in Himachal Pradesh, warming up the electioneering in the hill State.

Himachal Pradesh saw political turmoil during the past two months when six former Congress legislators – Rajinder Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma and Davinder Bhutto – crossvoted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha poll on February 27. They were disqualified from the Assembly for defying a party whip on a budget vote. Later, they joined the BJP, and have now been fielded by the party as its candidates for the byelection.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who has been blaming the BJP for attempting to destabilise and topple the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, on Friday again hit out at them, accusing them of attempting to bring down a democratically elected State government using unconstitutional means.

Speaking at Naduan in Hamirpur, Mr. Sukhu said, “The hunger for power of the BJP has increased, and since the BJP could not form a government in the State based on votes, now they are trying to grab the chair through money power. The public has rejected the BJP, yet they attempted to dislodge a democratically elected Congress government by mocking the democratic norms, ignoring the huge mandate of the people given to the Congress in the State.”

“All the deeds of the six former MLAs who have joined the BJP will be exposed in the court of the people. Cases of those who have acquired assets disproportionate to their income will also be opened,” said Mr. Sukhu.

‘Cong. betrayed people’ Taking a dig at the Congress, BJP State president Rajiv Bindal said the Congress government had betrayed the people during its 18month rule, and the government has done nothing in public interest, “The Congress’s MLAs have lost faith in their government and that is precisely the reason why the six MLAs went against the government.”

The bypoll to the six Assembly constituencies will be held along with the polling to the four Lok Sabha seats in the State on June 1.