Shimla, Apr 22 (PTI) The Congress will not only win all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh but also hit a “sixer” in the six assembly seats where bypolls are being held, Education Minister Rohit Thakur said on Monday.
Thakur is the Congress’ in-charge for the Shimla Lok Sabha seat.
The Congress has an emotional bond with the Shimla constituency. The BJP, on the other hand, is banking solely on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and seeking votes in his name, he told reporters on Solan.
Elections to Himachal Pradesh’s four Lok Sabha seats and bypolls to six assembly constituencies will be held on June 1.
The assembly seats fell vacant after six Congress MLAs who abstained from voting on the cut motion and finance bill (Budget) in the assembly were disqualified for defying a party whip to be present in the House and vote in favour of the government.
Thakur further alleged the BJP’s Shimla candidate and incumbent MP Suresh Kashyap failed to ensure development for 400 of the 900 panchayats.
The late Krishan Dutt Sultanpuri won from Shimla six consecutive times on a Congress ticket and his son, Vinod Sultanpuri, the party’s candidate this time, is visiting every corner of the constituency, he said.
Kashyap’s tenure as the BJP’s state unit chief was also disappointing and the saffron party lost the Mandi Lok Sabha seat and three assembly bypolls in 2021, the Himachal Pradesh minister said.
He also failed to fulfil his promises to the electorate, Thakur said and added the Congress will repeat its 2022 assembly election performance.
Hitting out at the Modi-led central government, Thakur said it failed to control price rise, provide employment to youngsters and introduced schemes such as the Agniveer, resulting in every third youngster in the country being unemployed.
He also claimed that the Centre tried to stall the state government’s development initiatives during the past year.
In spite of the huge debt liability inherited from the previous BJP dispensation in the state, the Congress has worked with the motto of “vyavastha parivartan (change of system)” and provided relief to calamity-hit people, restored the old pension scheme and provided Rs 1,500 per month to women, he said. PTI BPL SZM
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