Exuding confidence to wrest Rajpur Road seat from the Congress a day after his name was cleared for the constituency, Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Cabinet Minister Khajan Das said that he would leave no stone unturned if elected to regularise the slum areas and to beautify the constituency. Das went to the famous Daat Kali Temple in Dehradun to offer prayer in the morning and later, he met the party workers aside from addressing the locals of Khurbura on Tuesday evening.
Das said that more Congress leaders would join his party in the run-up to the February 15 election, unhappy as they are with the State and central leadership of the party. “Things have just started unfolding with State Congress stalwarts leaving the sinking ship,” he said. He stressed on his deepening connect with the party’s rank and file of the constituency. Notably, he is from Dhanaulti and is a former MlA from there, a fact that is not going down well with a large section of the party’s grass-root workers of Rajpur Road constituency area who dub him as an outsider foisted by the leadership against their will.
He said, “We are raising the issues of corruption and scams that have occurred in the state during the Congress rule. At the same time, we are highlighting achievements of the NDA government during its tenure of nearly two and half years in power. Besides, our critical focus is trained on the chief minister Harish Rawat who is considered to be the fount of corruption.”
Averring his resolve to bring better days for the slum dwellers, Das said that the Congress- led government had made flamboyant promises like regularizing their dwellings. “But they have done nothing on the ground to translate the promise into reality. If elected, it would be my topmost priority to regularize the slums. Besides, the area known as the gateway to Mussoorie endowed with a rich heritage must be adequately beautified. The sewer system has to be improved while the nallahs must be cleaned. Roads must be widened and uninterrupted power supply must be ensured,” he said.
Das further said that he has been in politics since 1982. “I cut my teeth in the electoral politics while I was elected as the gram pradhan. later, I was elected as the kshetra panchayat head and district panchayat member. In 2002, I contested the Assembly election from Dhanaulti (SC) seat but lost. I won from the seat in the next election in 2007. I became a minister of state in 2009 and a cabinet minister in 2010. I was the minister of many departments, including education. Post- delimitation 2008, it was declared unreserved. I did not contest the 2012 election, though my connect with the party remained intact. I was made the vice president of the state unit and later the general secretary,” Das said.
Asked how he would tackle the dissidence brewing against him following his being given nomination for a seat he is deemed to be an outsider to, Das said they all would be persuaded to work for the party, the election being a crucial one.