No time to prepare Cong manifesto, says Bali

Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 22

With barely a fortnight left for the polling on November 9, the Election Manifesto Committee of the Congress is yet to meet even once and to make matters worse Transport Minister GS Bali, who is its Convener, has categorically stated that he has no time to draft the document.

“I had told State Congress president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu as well as chairman of the Election Manifesto Committee Kaul Singh Thakur that I have no time to devote for preparing the Congress manifesto,” said Bali, when contacted on telephone in his assembly constituency of Nagrota Bagwan.

Interestingly, 11 out of the 13 members of the Election Manifesto Committee constituted by the AICC are contesting the elections and will have no time to spare for preparing the manifesto, which is a very important document, reflecting the vision of the party. Health and Family Welfare Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, who is the chairman of the committee, will have not much time at all as he will have to manage two Assembly segments, as his daughter Champa Thakur has also been given the ticket from Mandi (Sadar).

The various committees including manifesto, campaign, publicity and election committees were declared by the AICC on October 13. “Our party has suffered a lot of damage as the constitution of the committees kept getting delayed in a bid to strike balance between the Virbhadra faction and Sukhu’s team,” admitted a Congress MLA. He was candid enough to admit that the manifesto is a very important document and the voters have a close look at it before making up their mind. Before the 2012 Assembly polls, the Congress had released its manifesto with a major poll promise of providing the unemployment allowance which helped them get major support from the educated jobless youth. Even the BJP leaders later admitted that this single promise helped Congress woo the youth and sway votes in their favour.

On the other hand the BJP Manifesto Committee, headed by Randhir Sharma has held several round of meetings well in advance to prepare the Vision Document. In fact, several meetings were held even at the district level to get feedback from the party workers. As such the BJP could release its vision document anytime now, which is almost ready. The BJP even released an audio-visual charge-sheet against all the 36 Congress MLAs at Bilaspur in the presence of all its leaders like former Chief Minister PK Dhumal, Union Health Minister JP Nadda, state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur.

Members contesting elections

• Eleven out of the 13 members of the Election Manifesto Committee constituted by the AICC are contesting the elections and will have no time to spare for preparing the manifesto, which is a very important document, reflecting the vision of the party. 
• Health and Family Welfare Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, who is the chairman of the committee, will have not much time at all as he will have to manage two Assembly segments, as his daughter Champa Thakur has also been given the ticket from Mandi (Sadar).