BJP decides to launch signature campaign against Congress government in Himachal Pradesh

shimla: Lauding the achievements of the Central government, especially the 2023-24 Budget presented in the Parliament this week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to launch a signature campaign against what the party described as “Tughlaqui Firmaan” (dictatorial rule) of the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh.

By ‘Tughlaqui Firmaan’, the BJP refers to closure of more than 600 institutions, which were opened by the earlier BJP government ahead of the state assembly polls.

At the end of the three-day state executive meeting, held at Una, the party passed two resolutions, one in praise of the BJP government at the Centre and second on the state’s political situation after the return of the Congress to power.

Two union ministers viz Anurag Singh Thakur and General (Rtd) V K Singh besides former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur, state BJP president Suresh Kashyap and party incharge Abhinash Rai Khanna were among the top leaders who addressed the sessions at the meeting.

“There have been detailed discussions on the Budget presented in the Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Discussions were held on field reports on state assembly polls in context of BJP’s defeat — reasons and shortcomings,” says Randhir Sharma, MLA and BJP chief spokesman.

The party leadership has taken due note of the reasons that led to BJP reversals in the elections. Moreover, the party also identified some of the booths where the BJP fared badly. This will help the BJP to plug such shortcomings ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls.

Addressing the session, Jairam Thakur said the margin of defeat between the BJP and Congress in terms of the votes polled is just 0.9 per cent. This is the first government in the history of Himachal Pradesh which has won with such a small margin though numerically the Congress gained over the BJP.

He launched a sharp attack against the government for its criticism about BJP leaving a debt burden of Rs 75,000 crore. He claimed that there was no irregularity committed by his government in raising the loans for development but asked why now the Congress has resorted to public borrowings of Rs 1,500 crore within the past 55 days.

He said that between 2007 and 2012, when Prem Kumar Dhumal was the chief minister, the BJP government took a loan of Rs 6,700 crore and when the Congress government was in Himachal from 2012 to 2017, he took a loan of 13,000 crore.

Ever since this Congress government has formed in Himachal Pradesh, they have taken a loan of 1,000 crore within 15 days, after that they took a loan of Rs 1,500 crore in the month of January and now this government is going to take another loan of Rs 1,500 crore in February. “The speed of raising loans from this government is very fast,” he said.

Jairam Thakur said that ever since this Congress government was formed in Himachal Pradesh, continuous process of closure of institutions has been going on and now the Himachal Pradesh government has closed down 620 institutions, opened with Cabinet approvals.The Congress, however, has no such approvals to close down the institutions. He feared that the Congress government may scrap flagship healthcare scheme – HIMCARE which he had started to fill in the gap left by the Ayushman Bharat scheme. Earlier, Dhumal exhorted the party leaders to start preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as the BJP was poised to win all four seats.