Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has said that the green signal given by Congress president Sonia Gandhi patting Virbhadra Singh to continue as Chief Minister would prove a last nail in the coffin of Congress in the country in general and Himachal Pradesh in particular.
Dhumal while talking to The Pioneer said, “If the Parliamentary elections 2014 were any indication, Congress could get lead merely in five of the 68 Assembly constituencies across the State. “If elections are held today, Congress may not get even a single seat in HP,” he claimed.
He said with what face Virbhadra Singh, who had been shouting at the top of his voice that there was no Modi wave in Himachal, admitted with Sonia Gandhi that Congress was defeated due to the formidable Modi wave.
Dhumal said it was not true. Congress in Himachal was doomed because of the serious charges of corruption levelled against Virbhadra Singh and submitted to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley with ample documentary evidence.
He lamented that Sonia Gandhi turned a deaf ear to the serious allegations of huge payoff received by Virbhadra Singh, as was done by her in the cases of other big scammers in the country leading to the most humiliating defeat or rather total rout of Congress from the country.
Dhumal said, in Shimla Parliamentary constituency, once a stronghold of Virbhadra Singh, Congress could get a lead in just two segments. Even in Virbhadra Singh’s own constituency, Shimla rural, Virender Kashyap of BJP got a lead. It was so humiliating for Virbhadra that he should have resigned forthwith on moral grounds, said Dhumal.
In Kangra Parliamentary constituency, Shanta Kumar of BJP was far ahead of Congress in all the 17 Assembly segments, he said.The former Chief Minister said similar was the fate of Congress in Hamirpur Parliamentary constituency where BJP led in 16 constituencies and the 17th went to an independent candidate.
He said Sonia Gandhi was pretending to be ignorant about causes of the worst debacle of her party in the country while the fact was that she very well knew that scams and corruption let loose by Congress leaders including members of her own family doomed the party, he bemoaned. He expected more startling facts would come to light when the names of those dumping black money in foreign banks would be revealed to the people of this country. Dhumal hoped that good sense would prevail on the Congress High Command to immediately remove Virbhadra Singh from the post of Chief Minister and replace him by some other Congress leader of cleaner image without further delay and damage to the already tarnished image of Congress.