The State Congress president Pritam Singh said that they would make the intra-party bickering in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party the principal issue for the upcoming civic body elections. “The ministers and the MlAs are indulging in sabre rattling and consequently the people are suffering with the development of the State being shoved to the backburner,” he said.
He further said that the Government backing off its pre-election commitment to waive off farmers’ loan and the farmers dying unable to withstand the loan repayment pressure are among the other issues to be taken up during the campaigning by the opposition party.
Singh alleged that the BJP has betrayed the farmers by backing out from its pre-election pledge to waive off their loans. “It, however, conveniently forgotten its promise once it was saddled in the seat of power. The refusal to respect its commitment has landed the farming community people in dire straits, resulting in several suicides. We would take up this issue during our campaigning for the upcoming civic body elections. Besides, demonetisation and GST have nearly ruined traders, transporters and small shopkeepers. They keep incurring financial loss, something that promoted a transporter to consume poison and die. Many others have threatened to take the extreme step if the State Government remains insensitive to their plight. We would also focus on these issues during the local body election campaigning,” the state Congress chief said. He also said that the youth of the state are now a frustrated lot with unemployment problem haunting them. “The state government is doing nothing to generate jobs for them. Besides, the prices of the essential commodities are sky-rocketing. The people are finding it increasingly difficult to wriggle out of these things with the state government showing apathy for their fast- worsening plight. These are among other issues we would take to the people during the electioneering,” Singh said, adding that the state government arbitrarily expanding the limits of the civic bodies while ignoring the people’s sentiment would be a major issue of his party’s election campaigning.
While admitting that the ensuing local urban body elections are an acid test for the BJP-helmed Government in the state, the state BJP president Ajay Bhatt said that he is confident of the party maintaining its winning streak during these elections. “We would highlight the fast-paced development going on everywhere and the State Government’s commitment to weed out corruption. Besides, we have raised funds to be allocated to the civic bodies to accelerate the pace of development. Our party cadre are already reaching out to the people on the ground, hearing out their grievances and mitigating their sufferings. There is no doubt that we are all set to sweep the elections,” Bhatt added.