Tumultuous welcome was given to BCCI president Anurag Thakur on his first visit to Bilaspur on Thursday, which is a part of his Hamirpur parliamentary constituency which he has represented continuously for the last three terms.
Thousands of people from Bilaspur, Mandi and Hamirpur, including BJP MlAs, had converged on the occasion to congratulate him for unanimously getting elected for the prestigious post, which was a matter of big honour for Himachal Pradesh, the small hill state of country.
Asked about his priorities, Thakur said his mission was to make Indian cricketers the best in the world by earnestly working, in coordination with the state governments, to set up a network of cricket stadium across the country to catch young and promising cricketers from all parts of the country.
When reporters asked him to comment amidst peals of laughter about the remarks of the state chief minister, Virbhadra Singh, that he (Anurag Thakur) would have better promoted ‘ Danda Guli ‘, He only smiled.
When the same question was posed to his father, former chief minister and leader of HP Vidhan Sabha Prem Kumar Dhumal, he quipped that it spoke volumes about “perverse and capricious” mind set-up of the chief minister. He congratulated Anurag, but also cautioned that his election was a matter of both honour and challenge.
Dhumal said Anurag had scaled great heights by virtue of his own devotion, aptitude and hard work and he had little or no role in his success. Rather he feels, at times, that he had to suffer the wrath of those in power because of him.