To counter the Parivartan Rath Yatra by BJP, the youth wing of Congress has announced its Vikas Prachaar Yatra in the State to “expose the false propaganda” being run by the BJP in the State, Vikramaditya Singh, president, State Youth Congress and son of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, said on Tuesday.
Singh said the State had achieved unprecedented growth in the last five years, and Youth Congress would spread the message of development and further vision of Congress for the State.
“The Vikas Prachaar Yatra, in its 21 days period, would cover 45 Assembly constituencies of the State and senior leaders and Ministers of the State will participate in the yatra, besides senior leaders of Congress from other States,” he said.
Vikramaditya said the Yatra would start on July 17 and it would cover at least 5 towns in each Assembly segments to make an access to maximum number of people.
Addressing a news conference in Shimla, Vikramaditya said the Parivartan Rath Yatra had in fact backfired for BJP, as the factionalism in the party had come to fore during the Rath Yatra. He said the BJP was a divided house between Prem Kumar Dhumal and Jagat Prakash Nadda and this yatra had brought the friction in the saffron party in the eyes of people.
Ruling out any impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Himachal Pradesh, Vikramaditya said the PM addressed a rally before the Shimla Municipal Corporation, but it hardly made any impact as BJP could not secure majority on its own in MC house. Admitting mistakes, he said, Congress could have performed better in Shimla MC election if it had fought MC elections seriously.
He said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh took the campaign seriously and addressed a number of meetings till late in the last three days of campaigning for the MC, and due to the impact of campaigning by CM, Congress had secured a strong position in Shimla MC.