Claiming that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi would not contest the next lok Sabha election from his current constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, BJP's lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur sees a dim future for the opposition party not only in the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh but also in the rest of India.
Thakur, the eldest Son of BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal , claimed that Rahul will not contest from Amethi, the pocketborough of the family, and would go for another lok Sabha constituency in 2019. " He will not be a candidate from Amethi.. take it in writing ", he said while talking to The Pioneer.
The BJP leader said Congress has "no strength" and cited that for so long the party could not give an alternative face to Virbhadra Singh in the hill State. He went on to also claim that after the Gujarat polls, Congress would “change its national leadership” and that in the State elections, the Congress did not want Rahul to tour the State.
Talking about Himachal Pradesh, he said while nine lakh people are unemployed in the State , the Chief Minister tweets about giving “unemployment dole to all that did not happen.”
He said BJP would seek to give quality education , provide lap tops , internet and bags to students. Once BJP Government takes the reins of Government , there would be more jobs in the tourism sector as the State had an estimated 18 million annual tourists last year, mostly religious tourists. The BJP MP said in upper Himachal Pradesh more cold storages would be constructed and e-Mandi will be created. He said Dhumalji created local Mandis . " One need to be innovative to cut down the cost of apples", he said.
Dhumal had earlier told The Pioneer that apple growers were not getting their right price and efforts would be made to ensure majority of apple crop is sold locally. He also backed duty on the import of apples like that from Israel " as we cannot compete with the global market."
lashing out at the Congress Government, Thakur said between 2007 and 2012, Himachal Pradesh received 85 awards, but in last five years did not win even five awards .