Jai Ram accuses Himachal CM Sukhvinder Sukhu of corruption, Pratibha Singh hits back

Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday made a blistering attack on the state government for deceiving the people of state, women in particular through the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Mahila Samman Nidhi. He charged the government with shielding the corrupt.

“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has already made a written complaint to the Election Commission. Party will again complain since chief minister (CM) Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu paid two hoots and announced to pay ₹1,500 monthly honorarium,” Thakur, addressing media in Shimla, said.

“We are not against implementation of the Old Pension Scheme; Congress is trying to mislead the people of the state,” he added.

Dubbing the Sukhu-led government “ineffective”, Jai Ram said, “People of the state are unhappy with the anti-people stance of the government.”

“Deputy CM Mukesh Agnihotri is repeatedly claiming that there is no threat to his government,” he noted, questioning the need for such clarifications.

Thakur added that the Congress government has discontinued the HimCare and Ayushman Bharat schemes, which were benefiting the poor.

Supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of “One Nation, One Election”, he said, “Ï am happy that more than 25 crore people were brought above the poverty line,” Thakur said.

Pratibha dubs former CM ‘liar’

Meanwhile, Congress’ state unit chief Pratibha Singh, who is also the member of Parliament from Mandi, on Wednesday accused Jai Ram of lying and making misleading remarks over “lopsided approach in the development works of Mandi”.

Singh said barring two assembly segments, the development in Mandi had come to grinding halt under Jai Ram’s regime. “It’s rather the Congress government, which accelerated developmental works in Mandi,” she said, terming former CM’s allegation that the Congress government of the state is discriminating against Mandi as completely false.

Pratibha said the party will chalk out the strategy for the elections in Mandi parliamentary constituency in an April 19 meeting at Congress’ state headquarters Rajiv Bhawan.

Apart from Congress MLAs of Mandi parliamentary constituency, party candidates who have contested elections in the past, district and block presidents, district heads of leading organisations and departments have been called in the meeting. The meeting will be held at 11.30 am.

Pratibha said the party has fielded a young, hard-working and experienced candidate in the form of public works minister Vikramaditya Singh, who is currently serving as the MLA from Shimla Rural in the state government.

She added that all party leaders from Mandi were united and would ensure the victory of Vikramaditya Singh with a big margin.

The leader reflected on her connection with Mandi, saying it’s both her place of birth and workplace of her and her family. He said her husband and former CM Virbhadra Singh carried out many development works in the area.

“By giving Mandi the status of Central John, major offices of the state government were established here. As an MP, he himself has completed many development works.. Vikramaditya will complete the remaining works,” she added.