Shimla: Should the congress loose the general assembly election, chief minister Virbhadra Singh would have no legal, moral, democratic or constitutional right to continue in office for by all accounts BJP is confident of making a comeback in the state, Satpal Jain, BJP incharge for Himachal stated here.He said that the chief minister would have to respect the peoples verdict and should not continue in office after the counting of votes on December 28.
If the chief minister attempts to continue in office after the counting of votes then the Governor has the power to dissolve the house, Jain told the media here.
“In case Virbhadra Singh has intentions of remaining in office and continuing till March 9, despite and adverse outcome in the polls, then BJP will ensure that the peoples mandate is respected,” he said. “The chief minister is intentionally trying to mislead the people regarding early holding of the assembly elections by terming it as a constitutional crisis, he added.
Jain, a lawyer by profession said, Article 324 of the Constitution of India and Section 15 of the Representation of People’s Act 1951, empowers the Election Commission to the powers to hold elections six months before the tenure of the assembly is over.
Taking umbrage to RK Dhawan’s remark of calling BJP a power greedy and opportunist party, he said Dhawan should not have used such derogatory language. “It is the Congress which joined hands with parties with completely different ideology to form the UPA government and did not hesitate to take DMK support despite having held it responsible for the murder of their leader Rajiv Gandhi,” he said.
“Congress was the biggest communal party in the country which did not miss out any opportunity to grab power at whatever cost or compromise, he added.
Regarding ticket distribution, he said that the BJP central election committee was scheduled to meet at Delhi on November 22-23 for finalizing the party candidates for the 65 assembly segments that go to the polls on December 19.
About campaigning he said that BJP would hold 350 public meetings all over the state by November 15. “The campaign would be launched on November 18, with a youth rally at Mandi in which more than 50,000 people are expected to be present,” said Jain. Besides Rajnath Singh, LK Advani or Mrs Sushma Swaraj would address the rally, he added.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads the team of media professionals at Hill Post.
In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.
