BHARMAUR: Amid foggy and cool weather, hectic campaigning has started in the Bharmaur and Pangi valley of the Chamba district to elect its MLA from Bharmaur assembly segment on November 14. There are five candidates in the frat including four timer Thakur Singh Bharmauria of Congress and two timer, Tulsi Ram of BJP. This is seventh time that both are fighting each other for going to the state Vidhan sabha.
Top leaders of BJP and Congress have swung into action to manage votes in favor of their respective parties so that they are able to form their government in the state.
There are thirty-four polling stations, out of 104 polling stations in the Bharmaur (Tribal) assembly segment of the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, where polling will be held on November 14. This was stated here today by an official spokesman.
He told that as many as 55,106 voters will exercise their right of franchise on these 104 polling stations to elect their MLA.
The spokesman said that Kahini polling station was having highest number of 1,350 electors, whereas the lowest electors were in the Chash Bhaturi polling station with 71 electors.
Similarly, one has to go to Chas Bhaturi polling station after crossing through eighteen kilometers on foot and for this, the polling parties will be dispatched four days in advance so that the polling was done in time. This polling station has the height of 13,300 feet and remains snow bound for most of the part of the year.
He said that the district administration had taken up steps for maintaining law and order in the Bharmaur area during elections and all areas of the constituency with the terrorist affected area of Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir had been sealed to prevent the influx of any unwanted persons from there into the polling bound areas of Bharmaur.
Meanwhille, while launching the party’s election programme, senior Congress leader and Himachal chief minister, Vir Bhadra Singh today gave a clarion call to the people of the Bharmaur area of the Chamba district and other tribal belts of the state to vote for Congress for their all round. He said,”Congress and development are the two faces of same coin and the development process is the main policy of Congress”.
Addressing an election meeting in Kidi village of the Bharmaur area today, he told the people that each vote to the BJP would be a vote for disintegration of the nation and the state as the BJP had neither any policy nor programme. The one point programme of the BJP was to divide the nation on caste, creed and regional basis. He said, “Wherever, the BJP was voted to power, riots erupted there and people were killed mercilessly. The Gujarat issue is before us and it proves that BJP people are anti people”.
The Congress leader said that whatever the state and the Chamba district today was due to the Congress. Neither the BJP nor the previous Jan Sangh had done any thing for the state and the district. This party was against the merger of new areas of the state with old areas to make it Himachal Pradesh. Such people should not be believed as they don’t believe in any policy of helping the people.
Singh appealed to the people to vote for Thakur Singh Bharmauri from Bharmaur area for their own well being. He claimed that Bharmauri was the man of masses and had done everything for the people of the area and he deserved the votes of the people.
He chided the BJP for raising the slogan of discrimination in field of development in the area. He said that Pangi and Bharmaur people knew the meanings of the development.
While addressing the rally, Bharmauria assured the people that he would do his best to develop the area as promised by the chief minister. He said that Congress was the party of poor and thats why he was with the Congress.
Earlier, the chief minister also addressed a workers meeting and told them to fan out to the villages so as to tell the people the true story behind the development of the area under the Congress regime. He said that this time, the election was too critical as the BJP was spreading a vicious campaign against the Congress and its leaders. He said that they should tell the people not to believe the BJP failing which they would be doomed.
On other hand, BJP MP and former Himachal chief minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal today charged the Congress for misusing the government machinery during elections to the three tribal seats of the state, especially the Bharmaur of Chamba district. He said that a number of government officers and employees were actively working for the Congress and one of them was none else but wife of Congress candidate, Thakur Singh Bharmauri, who is a senior officer with the education department. He appealed to the Election Commission to take note of such complaints of the BJP leaders and workers and punish the guilty persons under the law of land.
Addressing a rally of the party while launching its election campaign at Pangi today, Dhumal reminded the people that if they committed a mistake to vote for the Congress this time, the development would go out of their hands. He said that it was true that Congress and development were two faces of the same coin but the situation was otherwise. The Congress leader and workers used to swindle entire money that came for the development with help of the official machinery.
The BJP leader castigated the chief minister Vir Bhadra Singh for saying that Congress had every right to claim the votes on the issue of development. The party which failed to generate its own resources and was working with help of foreign loans only to meet with its day to day expenses has done nothing for the development and the picture shown by Congress on development was merely on the papers.
The BJP MP said that the BJP had developed the state in real sense and people still used to remind the previous regimes of the BJP for the works done for their respective areas.
Dhumal appealed to the people to rally behind the BJP and vote for its nominee, Tulsi Ram from Bharmaur area being a man of masses. He claimed that it was only Tulsi Ram who had toured entire area of Bharmaur during last four and half years not once but thrice and it proved that he was for the masses.
While addressing the gathering Tulsi Ram, the BJP candidate for the Bharmaur seat assured the people that he would try his best to solve their problems as he had been doing in past. He told them that despite losing the election last time, he preferred to work for them and continued to visit the constituency to know about the plight of the people.
He alleged that development had become haywire under the Congress rule and time had come to vote for the BJP for their welfare and well being.
Earlier, a group of the BJP workers of the area met Dhumal and complained to him about the misuse of power by the Congress people with help of the official machinery.
Dhumal could not make it to Bharmuar as per schedule dprogramme as the copter he was riding could not take its journey from pangi to Bharmaur due to bad weather. Now, another former chief minister , Shanta Kumar will go to Bharmaur to canvass for the party candidate there.
