With the Parliamentary election and crucial byelections in Himachal Pradesh drawing near, the ruling Congress party has sharpened its attack on the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), as both parties are embroiled in a direct electoral battle in the hill State.
Hitting out at the BJP, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on May 10 accused the previous Chief Minister and at present the Leader of the Opposition Jairam Thakur of playing politics of ‘regional bias’ and ‘corruption’ during the BJP regime.
Mr. Sukhu, who accompanied Congress candidate Satpal Raizada for submission of his nomination papers for the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, addressed a rally in Hamirpur, where he alleged the previous BJP regime of being involved in “huge corruption”.
Mr. Raizada, a former MLA from the Una Assembly segment is facing Union Minister Anurag Thakur of the BJP in the Hamirpur parliamentary constituency.
He said that during the BJP regime the level of corruption was beyond imagination. “Jobs in the government sector weren’t merely sold but auctioned. Due to rampant corruption in Hamirpur Subordinate Staff Selection Commission, we had to disband this entity after forming the government,” he said.
Mr. Sukhu said the BJP government led by Jai Ram Thakur deliberately neglected the development work in the Hamirpur district because of the regional bias towards its people. “During the previous BJP government, Hamirpur was not represented in ministerial positions as well,” he added.
Byelections to six Assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh would simultaneously held with the Parliamentary polls on June 1. The byelections were necessitated after the six seats fell vacant following the disqualification of the six Congress MLAs from the State legislative Assembly for defying a party whip. Later, all the six Congress rebels joined the BJP and are now contesting as BJP candidates in the byelections. They were all elected as Congress MLAs in the 2022 Assembly election.
Across the State, on the fourth day of filing nominations, 18 candidates filed their nomination papers for the Lok Sabha and Assembly byelections, according to the State election department.
