Shimla April, 7; Drumming up the rhetoric of “parivaarvad” against BJP candidate Anil Chauhan, the Congress is seeking votes for its nominee Pramila Devi while portraying her as an educated dalit woman who deserves to be given a chance.
The Congress campaign gained momentum today with the arrival of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh who addressed the first election meeting at Dashmal village under Dimmi Panchayat. He today addressed a total of eight such meetings in the BJP stronghold of Bhoranj to seek votes for Parmila, terming her as a deserving daughter.
“She comes from a very humble background and is a dalit who has done M Phil in Political Science. Does she not deserve a chance for atleast six months”, said Virbhadra Singh. Questioning the BJP move of fielding former minister ID Dhiman’s son, he asked is it the right of only one family to contest election and become an MLA.
Virbhadra also did not hesitate to accuse the BJP of playing up the issue of regionalism. “A Chief Minister does belong to a particular area but once in the chair, he must treat every part of the state as equal as I firmly believe in oneness and uniform development,” he remarked. In an oblique reference to former Chief Minister PK Dhumal, he said the BJP always plays up the card of regionalism on the eve of elections to divide the people of the state. He said despite Bhoranj being represented by the BJP for the last 27 years, it is the Congress which started the Bamsan-Lagwalti water supply scheme to address the grave water problem faced by the people of the area. He said the SDM office had been opened at Bhoranj by the Congress.
Countering BJP allegation of corruption against him, he said he had become a victim of political victimization at the hands of the BJP. “It is Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, former Chief Minister PK Dhumal and his son Anurag Thakur who are responsible for all investigating agencies – the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax — hounding me, he remarked. He said all these agencies were under Jaitley and being used by the NDA regime to unleash vendetta at him.
Virbhadra said the reason why the Congress had not won Bhoranj for the last 27 years was because no serious efforts were ever made to wrest Bhoranj seat from the BJP. The Congress had taken it for granted that only BJP would win in Bhoranj.Senior Congress leaders, including Ram Lal Thakur and Kuldeep Kumar, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPS) – Rajesh Dharmani and ID Lakhanpal — and former MLA Kuldeep Singh Pathania accompanied the CM. The Congress is hoping to give a fight to the BJP in its stronghold with aggressive campaigning by Virbhadra till tomorrow, when campaign comes to an end.State BJP President Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, accompanied by Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes also campaigned in Bhoranj.
News Source Tribune India
