With barely five weeks left for polling in Himachal Pradesh, various candidates contesting from Mandi parliamentary have intensified their election campaign.
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has launched aggressive campaign for the Congress candidate and his wife Pratibha Singh. He is devoting most of his time in 10 segments falling in Mandi constituency and hoping to win with a bigger margin than that of the mid-term poll held last year when the BJP candidate was defeated by a margin of 1,36,000 votes.
Virbhadra Singh has based his campaign on attacks on BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.
Meanwhile AAP has also announced the candidature of Jai Chand Thakur from Mandi. He is a retired official of soil conservation department. The CPM has also fielded Kushal Bhardwaj, as its candidate. The main fight,
however, is between the Congress and the BJP, the traditional rivals in the politics of
Himachal Pradesh.
Humble and unassuming BJP candidate, Ram Swaroop Sharma, is burning midnight oil in his canvassing. He is currently visiting constituencies. At a public meeting in Nachan segment on Monday he said former kings and queens could not feel the pangs of the teeming poor by making mere false commitments which had been seldom implemented.
He alleged that Pratibha Singh had virtually done nothing for the development or welfare of the people of Mandi. Whatever had been done was during the tenure of former chief minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal or during that golden era when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister.
Alleging that Congress had all along been “anti-Himachalis” and it only exploited hilly State depriving it of the rightful share in Bhakhra and Beas-Sutlej link Projects. Congress withdrew the special economic package given to the state by Vajpayee. It dealt a serious economic blow to the State, he alleged.
He said only BJP Government at the Centre and State could usher in prosperity in the hilly State and urged people to weed out Congress from Himachal Pradesh.
Congress candidate Pratibha Singh, claimed at the public meeting in Sundernagar on Monday, that during the Congress rule every section of the society had been benefited.