Congress will dilute SC/ST quota to benefit Muslims: Anurag Thakur

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Dharamsala, May 14

BJP leaders today accused the Congress of “befooling people” in the name of election guarantees before the last Assembly elections, ignoring the Kangra region.

They also accused the Congress of trying to benefit Muslims at the cost of SC/ST and OBC population. Sudhir Sharma said he had left the Congress to ensure the development of Dharamsala.

A rally was organised at Zorawar stadium by Sudhir Sharma, BJP candidate for the Dharamsala byelection. Union minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur accompanied Sudhir Sharma and later addressed the rally.

Anurag, while addressing the rally, said the BJP would win all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal and all six byelections. “The state government is about to fall as the Congress has failed to fulfil its guarantees. It has failed to give Rs 1,500 per month to all women in the state as promised before the last Assembly elections. The other election guarantees of the Congress such as buying cow dung from farmers and providing 300 units of free electricity are yet to be fulfilled,” he added.

Anurag said that India had progressed a lot under PM Narendra Modi in the past 10 years. “From being the largest importer of weapons, India has emerged as an exporter of weapons. The foreign exchange reserves of the country are at all-time high,” he added.

He alleged that the Congress had given 5 per cent job quota of SC/ST and OBCs in southern states to Muslims. It would do the same in other parts of the country if it was voted to power, he added.

Sudhir said Sukhu was making vague allegations against him. “We are fighting the election against the Congress government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu. I do not have any personal grudge against Sukhu. I have fought for honour and development of Dharamsala. We have to fight for stalled projects like Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) campus in Dharamsala, the IT park project, expansion of Dagwar milk plant and Smart City Dharamsala project.

Sudhir released his vision document for Dharamsala in which he promised to give village status of nine villages that were merged with Dharamsala MC in 2015.

Pawan Kajal, BJP MLA from Kangra, said the coming 25 years would belong to the BJP. “I had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election as a Congress candidate but lost with a whopping margin of 4.77 lakh votes. I managed to save my deposit but now the Congress candidate will not be able to do so,” he said.

Sullah MLA Vipin Singh Parmar said that Sudhir would win the Assembly bypoll. Congress rebels showed courage to elect Harsh Mahajan as the Rajya Sabha member, he added.