Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Wednesday advocated a complete revamp of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) like the BCCI in which cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar has been appointed as president.
Hailing the decision of Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) to appoint Gavaskar as chief of BCCI, he added that the HPCA in the State also needed to be revamped and constitutionally elected body formed to protect the interest of the game of cricket and providing equal opportunity to the players from Himachal.
HPCA is headed by arch rival Prem Kumar Dhumal’s son Anurag Thakur against whom Singh has been fighting a raging battle both inside and outside the court.
Addressing a public meeting at Kandraur in favour of Congress candidate from Hamirpur, Rajinder Rana, Singh reiterated that Anurag Thakur and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal illegally occupied land worth crores under the garb of HPCA by converting it from a society to a company through forged means and got it registered at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh instead of registering the same here in the State itself.
Virbhadra Singh said that Dhumal was in habit of lying and was uttering nonsense out of mere frustration anticipating loss of BJP in the State and particularly of his son Anurag Thakur in lok Sabha elections. He said Dhumal was doing politics of vendetta by misleading the people.
The Chief Minister appealed to the people to vote in favour of Rajinder Rana as he was a fit person for raising the problems of the State in lok sabha and solve the grievances of the people’later in the day, he addressed election rallies at Thural and Fared in Kangra in favour of Congress candidate Chander Kumar who is contesting against BJP veteran Shanta Kumar. “Shanta has not done anything extraordinary for the State that could be remembered.
Though BJP veteran leader Shanta Kumar is a good human being and refined personality but has fallen prey to the tactics of his party colleagues at this stage of his political career,” said the Chief Minister.
He claimed that foes in BJP have played their game and projected him as a lok Sabha candidate in current elections but Shanta being a man, who thinks on single line failed to understand the strategy of his opponents within his party.Virbhadra Singh said BJP was seeking votes in name of Narendra Modi forgetting that there was no policy and programme of an individual but it was for the party as a whole.
He reminded the people about the Gujarat riots in which many people from the minority community were killed during the regime of BJP under Modi. The Chief Minister cautioned the people to be-aware of such communal forces and exhorted the people to vote in favour of Congress candidate Chander Kumar.