Sympathy for late chief minister Virbhadra Singh won’t work for Congress in HP Assembly polls: BJP

Shimla, December 21

Sympathy for late Congress leader Virbhadra Singh will not work for Congress in next Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said here on Tuesday.

Thakur told the media that sympathy will not yield poll wins for ever.

The ruling BJP attributed its defeat in Mandi Lok Sabha and all three assembly seats — Fatehpur, Arki, Jubbal-Kotkhai — in by-election in Himachal Pradesh in October to the sympathy of voters for the six-time CM Virbhadra Singh, who breathed his last on July 8 due to post-Covid complications.

Speaking about BJP’s defeat in the bypoll, Thakur said the results of those elections were affected by special circumstances. Congress sought votes in the name of Virbhadra Singh by raising the slogan “Vote Nahin, Shardhanjli Hai”, he added.

Thakur further stated: “BJP is seeing bypoll results as an alert (for the coming Assembly polls). (Bypoll) defeat will become a reason for our victory (in Assembly polls)”.

 The trend of electing BJP and Congress alternately in HP will end and the BJP will repeat its government in the state in the next Assembly elections in December 2022, he claimed.

The chief minister evaded direct reply regarding possible reshuffle in his cabinet after the defeat in the recent bypoll.

Thakur said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a state level public meeting in Mandi to mark the fourth anniversary of BJP government in Himachal Pradesh on December 27.

Modi will also visit different parts of the state including AIIMS in Bilaspur for its inauguration in the next year before the Assembly elections scheduled to be held in December, he added.

Thakur said that PM would inaugurate and lay stones of various works worth Rs 11,279 crores during his two-hour stay on Monday.

The CM accompanied by Industries Minister Bikram Singh said that the second groundbreaking event of projects worth about Rs 20,000 crore of the Rising Himachal Global Investors’ Meet would also be done in PM’s presence on that day. 

A Global Investors Meet was held in Dharamsala on November 7-8, three years ago. The first groundbreaking ceremony of projects worth over Rs 13,656 crores to turn these proposals into real projects was held in Shimla on December 27, 2019 in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. — PTI

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.