Political Tensions Surge in Himachal Pradesh Ahead of Lok Sabha Polls

Union Minister Anurag Thakur criticized Himachal Pradesh's Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu for delays in critical infrastructure projects and misleading the public on various issues. Thakur urged voters to reject Congress, emphasizing stalled railway projects and unfulfilled promises in health and employment sectors

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu could not even spare 15 seconds to sign a letter agreeing to give the state's share for a railway line to Hamirpur, Union minister Anurag Thakur said on Thursday.

He also accused Sukhu of misleading people on a medical college for the area since March 2014.

Addressing a series of poll rallies in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha segment, Thakur said, ''The chief minister could not spare 15 seconds to sign a letter agreeing to pay the state's share for the construction of the Hamirpur-Una railway line, even though the budget for the line was reduced from Rs 7,800 to Rs 5,800 crore.'' Sukhu was ''not willing'' to get the railway line constructed for Hamirpur, he alleged, adding that the work on the Bhanupali-Bilaspur line was going on in a fast pace but as soon as the Congress came to power in the hill state, not even a single penny was given for the project.

The Union information and broadcasting minister also lashed out at Sukhu for allegedly misleading people on a medical college since March 2014 and said in 2015, during the days of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, ''we got a medical college approved in Jol Sappar and started the project by sanctioning a budget of Rs 174 crore''.

Despite the BJP-led Centre according the approval in 2015, the then Congress government in Himachal Pradesh kept the project hanging for two-and-a-half years and did not provide land for the same. When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was formed in the state in 2017, the land was provided, the foundation stone laid and the construction work launched, Thakur said.

''I could not find a single woman who was given Rs 1,500 per month in the entire Hamirpur Lok Sabha segment, including the chief minister's Assembly constituency of Nadaun. I did not find a single youngster to whom he (Sukhu) has given a job. I did not find a single house that has got 300 units of free electricity,'' he said, adding that people are ready to give a befitting reply to the ''useless'' Congress in the parliamentary polls.

On the opening of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bilaspur, Thakur said it took the state government three years and four months to give the land for the project.

The BJP's Lok Sabha poll candidate from Hamirpur claimed that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has admitted that when his party was in power in the country for 60 years, atrocities on the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) continued.

Their votes were used and nothing was done for them, he alleged, claiming that Gandhi, a former Congress chief, has himself accepted this.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in the Sujanpur area, Thakur said violence and atrocities against women are happening openly under Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee's rule in West Bengal.

Gunbattles and bomb blasts have become normal during elections in West Bengal and atrocities against women are common in the state, the Union minister alleged.

Such things are taking place in a state where the chief minister is a woman, he said.

Thakur urged the people of Himachal Pradesh to reject the Congress and vote for the BJP in all the four Lok Sabha seats and six Assembly bypolls.

Polling is scheduled to be held in Himachal Pradesh on June 1.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)