Adding a Punjabi tadka to the high-octane Himachal Pradesh poll campaigning, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday kick-started his three-day hectic tour in the neighbouring hill State from Nachan in Mandi district.
Capt Amarinder will hold another set of rallies in support of Congress candidates in Mandi and Nalagarh constituencies of Himachal Pradesh on Monday, followed by two more in Nurpur and Haroli on Tuesday.
Campaigning for the Congress nominees — lal Singh Kaushal from Nachan and Sujan Singh Pathania from Fatehpur, Capt Amarinder lashed out Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his ‘termite’ remark against the Congress saying that he was running from one constituency to another in a bid to garner support for his party’s candidates.
Claiming Modi’s comments reflected his despair at the anti-BJP swing that has started emerging across the country, he said that had that been the case, the country would have collapsed by now, instead of progressing the way it had done in the past 70 years.
“Himachal Pradesh also would not have developed the way it had done under various Congress Governments,” said Capt Amarinder.
It was obvious that the Prime Minister had realised that the BJP was headed for an electoral rout and had pitched all his personal efforts into salvaging the situation in the bleak hope that he would be able to befool the people, he said.
These last-ditch efforts were unlikely, however, to yield results as the people of the state had seen the devastation wreaked by the BJP wherever it was in power, including at the national level, he added.
From demonetisation to GST, the Modi-led BJP’s ill-conceived decisions had brought the people to their knees and disillusioned them completely from the party, said Punjab Chief Minister.
When demonetisation struck, people did not have money to buy even a cup of tea, he said, adding that with the promised GST (Goods and Service Tax) money yet to roll out, state governments were having a hard time carrying out any development and welfare works.
Capt Amarinder also ridiculed the Prime Minister’s decision to bring in the bullet train at a huge cost to the exchequer, offering rides at a price higher than airline tickets.
“Why would anyone want to pay more for a train journey when they could fly at a cheaper cost,” he said, adding that the Modi Government clearly had no qualms about wasting the tax-payers’ hard-earned money.
like him, Virbhadra Singh has also declared this to be his last election as they both wanted to hand over the reins now to the youth, said Capt Amarinder, adding that the outgoing Himachal Chief Minister had decided to contest these polls only because he wanted to join in battling the current crisis facing the country and bring in more development in the state.
“With Governments in Punjab and other States caught in a financial bind due to the various inconsiderate decisions of the Modi Government, the plight of the ordinary people could not even be imagined. But the BJP remained unconcerned,” he said asking Modi if the Central Government had spared a single thought on how States and people would survive in the absence of funds.
Pointing that the November 9 polls were a fight for the future of our children, Capt exhorted the people gathered for his rallies to go back home and persuade their neighbours and friends to vote for the Congress in the interest of the state.
Earlier, in Nachan, Capt Amarinder lauded the unanimous selection of lal Singh Kaushal to contest on the Congress ticket from Nachan, saying the entire party was with him, just as it had been with Sunil Jakhar in the recent Gurdaspur by-election, which the party won with a record margin.
In Fatehpur, Capt Amarinder said that he was confident of an unprecedented win for the Congress from constituency as Sujan, whom he had known for the past 40 years, was an excellent candidate. He was sure Himachal Pradesh would deliver for the Congress the kind of victory Punjab had secured for the party in the assembly and Gurdaspur had done recently in lok Sabha bypoll, he added.