Shimla: In campaign mode union ministers Anand Sharma and Virbhadra Singh launched a scathing attack against the Prem Kumar Dhumal led BJP government at the ‘Parivartan Rally’ in Nahan today even as factional cracks within the state unit of Congress were on display.
Sharma came down hard on the state government for unashamedly taken credit for all center sponsored schemes simply by giving it a different name.
“Allegations of discrimination and step motherly treatment leveled by chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal smacked of dishonesty for they are false allegations to befool the people as the central government is constitutionally bound to follow a just and equal level for devolving central schemes for all states which includes Himachal also,” said Sharma.
Critical of BJP President Nitin Gadkari, Sharma charged the party and its president of fanning bitterness and acrimony of religious organisations and civil society members towards the Congress party.
“It is a well planned and thought out move that has run its course,” said Sharma.
The union minister termed the BJP president as more of a businessman and less of a politician.
In a oblique reference to factional fighting within the state unit just as it gears up to face general assembly elections a few months later, Sharma in his speech pointed out, ““we are all workers of Congress party and there is only one supreme leader in the party and that is Ms Sonia Gandhi”.
Speaking at the public meeting, Virbhadra said that the Dhumal government had been discriminatory in its approach for development works for different areas that was being resented by even BJP workers.
He said that many state roads were in bad shape and the government was consciously not doing anything to improve them.
Whereas most of the senior state Congress leaders including president Kaul Singh, opposition leader Vidya Stokes and party incharge for the state, Chaudhary Birender Singh and Annes Ahmed reached the venue in a specially prepared ‘Parivartan Rath’, a re-modeled bus for campaign purposes but Virbhadra Singh and Anand Sharma were not part of it.
While Virbhadra reached the venue separately with his supporters, due to a flight delay Sharma was the last to make it to Chowgan, the public meeting venue.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
