With just a week remaining in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections, the central leadership of Congress hasn’t seemed much interested in retaining the power in the state. Though the party has drawn a list of over 40 star campaigners, the political campaign in the state is still being headed by the current chief minister, Virbhadra Singh.
The polls in Himachal Pradesh are set to take place on November 9th. However, till now, the party in power has not held any big rally featuring any of its big names. The list of star campaigners include the likes of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashok Tanwar, Gaurav Gogoi and Sushmita Dev. However, these names have not been spotted in Himachal yet. Navjot Singh Siddhu, the famous Punjab politician, who is said to be in demand in the state, will hold its rally on Saturday, just 3 days before the end of campaigning.
While there are speculations that Congress has already given up on the campaigning and the state, Randeep Surjewala, media in-charge for Congress begs to differ. According to Surjewala, Virbhadra Singh has a stronghold in the state and the party has made the strategy around him. He also questioned BJP on where it is getting the money for such aggressive campaigning.
Virbhadra Singh, the current chief minister of Himachal Pradesh has been the centre of campaigning with his wife and daughter Aparajita. He has campaigned in the entire state and intends to complete the campaigning at Arki, his own constituency. His son, Vikramaditya Singh is contesting election from Shimla (Rural).
At one hand, where BJP has fielded all its star leaders in the state, including UP CM Yogi Adityanath and prime minister Narendra Modi, who had recently held a rally in Kangra, the absence of the top Congress names in the campaign rallies does lead to a lot of questions.