Bharatiya Janata Party has no faith in its State leadership which is the reason for the party bringing in leaders from the Centre to campaign in the Vidhan Sabha 2017 election in Uttarakhand. The BJP had made this mistake and suffered the consequences in Punjab and is now doing the same in Uttarakhand, said the Congress party national spokesman and former Union Minister Manish Tewari.
Addressing the media at the Congress Bhawan in the provisional State capital Dehradun on Tuesday, Tewari opined that there is a dearth of strong State –level leaders in the BJP to face the Congress in Uttarakhand.
The Vidhan Sabha election should be contested by regional leaders on the basis of regional issues. The former union minister said, “Instead of the BJP state leadership, the party is getting its Central leaders to front the election campaign in Uttarakhand where there is a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress in the Vidhan Sabha election,” he said. The Congress national spokesman then spoke about the performance of the BJP-led Central Government during its 31 months in office so far. He said, “There are five criteria for judging the performance of a government- communal harmony, political stability, economic development, internal security and international relations. The BJP-led NDA government has failed on all these aspects in its term so far. During the 31 months of the BJP-led central government so far, the BJP has shredded communal harmony and divided society. During its 10-year term in office, the Congress-led UPA government did not use the constitution’s article 356 even once but the current Central Government wants to pollute national level politics by improper use of this article. The BJP even misused the post of the Governor, as in the case of Uttarakhand, to bring down the Congress Government in the State and it was due to judicial intervention that the BJP was not able to succeed in its plan fully.”
Tewari further said that on the economic front, investment had been negative in the country apart from which little had been done to generate the job opportunities promised. Regarding internal security, he blamed the Central Government for disturbance in Jammu and Kashmir, north eastern states and left wing extremism continuing in some states. Accusing the BJP-led Central Government of meting out “step-motherly” treatment to Uttarakhand, he averred that during its 10-year term in office, the UPA Government had treated all State Governments at par irrespective of the party heading the state governments.
Despite the “step-motherly” treatment, the Congress-led government in Uttarakhand had worked commendably even though chief minister Harish Rawat had only a three-year period to perform. Considering the developmental vision the party has for the state, the people should vote for the Congress so that the planned development can be achieved with the government under Rawat getting a full five-year term in office, said Tewari. Congress national spokesman Rajiv Tyagi, Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesman Mathura Datt Joshi and other office bearers of the party were also among those present at the Press conference.