With only a day left for both the BJP and Congress to convince the people to vote for them, both the parties are taking the last minute initiatives to underline their achievements and listing down the failures of its counterpart.
Himachal Pradesh has always voted for both BJP and Congress following an alternate pattern to bring to power both the parties. Since 1985 it has been a chase between Congress an BJP every alternate term. In 1985 it was Congress, in 1990 it was BJP, then in 1993 it was Congress again and in 1998 it was BJP, in 2003 it was Congress, in 2007 it was BJP and in 2012 it was Congress again.
So if following the pattern it seems like, it is BJP in 2017 that is likely to come to power in Himachal Pradesh.
Looking at the prevailing situations in the poll bound state, it seems like Himachal Pradesh is flooding with BJP ministers, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself being the star campaigner. While on the other hand, the scenario in Congress is giving out the message that it is only incumbent Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, that is left in the party to campaign for the elections.
After facing remarks from BJP, one after the other, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday had visited Himachal Pradesh to address a few rallies. Meanwhile, Congress was running in the race of campaigning with only two horses, on the other side, a galaxy of senior BJP members addressed over a dozen of rallies in the state on Monday.
Few of the BJP leaders that furthermore fueled the already charged up election campaign in Himachal Pradesh were, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Information and Broadcasting minister Smriti Irani, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat reached the poll-bound state besides Union ministers J P Nadda and Thawar Chand Gehlot, and Bihar minister Mangal Pandey.
Mangal Pandey, who is also the in charge of the BJP party affairs in Himachal Pradesh slashed down Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi over the reports and data provided by him in his speech on Monday. Mocking on the statements made by Rahul, Pandey said that the Congress is being haunted by defeat in Gujarat and so even in Himachal rallies, the Congress leader was talking about Gujarat.
Further taking a jibe at the ruling Congress in Himachal, Pandey said that it seems as if the Congress has already accepted its defeat and hence are scared of facing the public. Pulling down Rahul, the BJP party in charge in the state said that Rahul during his speech on Monday had said that corruption was less in Himachal. “for the Congress party which is involved in scams worth Rs 12 lakh crores between 2004-2014, corruption in Himachal could be less but not for the people who have been looted in the name of governance,’ he added.
Mangal Pandey defending the moves of the Modi government supported the decision of demonetizations and said that it was because of this decision that 3 lakh shell companies were unearthed. He also took a dig at Rahul Gandhi saying that, the Congress leader was not briefed properly as to the stats he provided on Monday. Rahul had appreciated the education system being provided by the Congress government in the state, whereas the reality was that the ‘dhabas’ were being converted into colleges and even were facing the scarcity of staff and proper infrastructure.
Other than Bihar Minister Mangal Pandey, Uttrakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat also attacked the Congress saying that the people in Himachal Pradesh were fed up by the ‘mafia raj’. He further added that the increasing number of crimes against the women and children had made Himachal an Apradh Bhumi (land of crimes) from the Dev Bhumi (land of Gods). Rawat claimed that BJP will win 55 out of the 68 seats in Himachal and the state will follow its neighboring Uttrakhand.
Like Pandey, Rawat also applauded the decisions of demonetization and GST taken by Narendra Modi. He said that these two decisions of the Prime Minister were revolutionary economic reforms that would go a long way in combating corruption. He further alleged that since the Congress and the other opposition parties could not find a single case of corruption against Narendra Modi, hence they were targetting Modi over note ban and GST.
Backing the plea of Narendra Modi to make the BJP win by three-fourth majority, Information and Broadcasting Minister, Smriti Irani, while addressing a rally at Rohroo, appealed the people to come and vote with a massive majority and bring the party to power in Himachal Pradesh.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh also attacking the ruling Congress headed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that the government in Himachal Pradesh had failed in providing security to women. he further added that the crime graph has increased in the past few years in Himachal. These comments of Rajnath comes in wake of the recent Gudiya incident that has given goosebumps to the people of the hill state, where a 14-year-girl was gang-raped and murdered.
Taking a dig at the Chief Minister, Rajnath remarked that “But once gone, you should not have come back, Mr. Singh.” He further giving details added that after winning the polls in 2012 under Virbhadra Singh, Congress lost all four Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He said that instead of improving the state matters and ensure security to the women, Virbhadra Singh was busy patronizing the corrupt and licking his own wounds, by sorting out his own corruption cases.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who has recently become the face of Hindutva for the BJP also blamed Virbhadra Singh to have been occupied solving and responding to his own corruption cases and not paying attention to the administration of Himachal Pradesh. Yogi further alleged that the Chief Minister had even failed to prepare DPRs (detailed project reports) for receiving grants for various development projects. He said that under the rule of the Congress, the ‘Dev Bhumi’ (land of Gods) had become the ‘Mafia Bhumi’ (land of the mafias).
Backing the BJP Chief Ministerial candidate, Adityanath said that since the name of Prem Kumar Dhumal has been announced as the BJP candidate, a new wave of enthusiasm can be seen among the people of Himachal.
All the BJP leaders mocking the corruption charges on Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and the fact that he was out of the jail on bail, said that he would remain on a prolonged bail now.
The 68 constituencies of Himachal Pradesh will go to polls on 9 Nov and the results will be declared on 18 Dec along with the results of Gujarat assembly polls.