Congress drive to portray Centre, BJP as ‘anti-Himachal’ begins today

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 16

The state Congress will launch a campaign tomorrow to portray the Central Government and the state BJP as ‘anti-Himachal’. Congress president Pratibha Singh chaired a meeting of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee here today. Party leaders said that they would expose the “anti-Himachal” face of the BJP in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, ministers, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, MLAs and the presidents of the party’s district and block units attended the meeting. Three ministers and six MLAs could not make it to the meeting.

The Chief Minister, while addressing mediapersons after the meeting, said that a unanimous view that emerged in the meeting was that the BJP was anti-Himachal. “When we brought a resolution in the Assembly for seeking a special package for the state, the BJP did not support it, thus revealing its anti-Himachal face. Also, none of the three BJP MPs sought help from Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the state,” he added.

Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said that the BJP had proved itself anti-Himachal through its actions and attitude in the past one year and the Congress would expose the party publicly with facts and figures. “We will inform peoplec how the BJP is blocking grants to the state, how the Centre has reduced our loan-taking limit, how foreign funding has been cut, how hurdles are being created in the way of levying water cess and how we got little help to deal with the natural disaster. From tomorrow, we will start our campaign,” he added.

Pratibha also attacked the Central Government and the state BJP for allegedly trying to “mislead people”. “We hardly got any help from the Central Government to cope with the natural disaster, yet our government did a good job in helping people in distress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls Himachal his second home, but he has not helped the people of the state,” she said.

Oppn MPs didn’t seek special package: CM

When we brought a resolution in the Assembly for a special package for the state, the BJP did not support it, thus revealing its anti-Himachal face. Also, none of the three BJP MPs sought help from Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the state. — Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Chief Minister

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