Former Union Minister and two-time Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Shanta Kumar on Friday claimed that during his long political career, he had never seen such tremendous and overwhelming response as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had received from Himalaya to Kanyakumari.
A strong and inexorable pro-Modi wave was sweeping across the country, said the senior BJP leader.
After a week long tour of his Kangra Parliamentary constituency in the remote Chamba district, Shanta Kumar revealed that even the youths of the far off pockets of the State were raising pro-Modi slogans.
According to his assessment, all the four parliamentary seats in Himachal would go to the BJP. He made a passionate appeal to the people of Himachal Pradesh to give a massive mandate to Narendra Modi on May 7 for ushering in a new era of development and corruption free Government.
Shanta Kumar said that some bad element in politics were panicky over the emergence of an honest person like Modi and were conspiring to retard his advance by fair or foul means. An iron-man like Modi was the stark need of the hour to bring the ailing economy back on the rails.
He said, many including criminals, scammers, tainted politicians and even those undergoing imprisonment have come out from jails on parole for the leg-pulling of Modi, but they would have to lick the dust as multitude of people was solidly behind Modi.
The BJP leader said that for first time in the history of democratic India, unique political scene has emerged at Varanasi which demonstrated the “might of Modi”.
At this crucial point, all the right thinking nationalist forces should also get together to nip the evil in the bud by voting for the BJP and also ensure massive turnout of people on the voting day on May 7, the day of judgment.
Alleging that the Congress had never been the well-wisher of the hilly State ever since it came into existence, he said that Himachal was deprived of its legitimate share in the gigantic hydel power projects built on its land and based on its water sources. The Congress Government at the Centre failed to safeguard the interests of the hilly State when it was a Union Territory.
He said that the people of the State had made great sacrifices by becoming homeless and landless for the execution of big power projects built by central loan and grants. Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan had been made the beneficiary states in projects which yielded daily income of crores of rupees.
On the contrary, Himacal Pradesh which bore the brunt of these projects was not made the beneficiary State. Our people were rendered homeless and landless and many of them had not been rehabilitated in the past over the 50 years.
Shanta Kumar said that on coming to power, the Congress-led UPA Government immediately withdrew the special economic package granted to Himachal Pradesh retarding the process of development accelerated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He said those who cherished a prosperous Himachal Pradesh must rally behind Narendra Modi spurning the wicked and vile politicians who were misleading the innocent Himachalis on cast factors to achieve their narrow political ends.
The BJP leader said it was the BJP Government of Prem Kumar Dhumal which fought a long legal battle and won its case of the rightful share in power projects made in the territory of Himachal Pradesh in the Supreme Court. But the beneficiary states were still creating hurdles and proving stumbling blocks in the execution of the decision of the apex Court, he lamented.