Even as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stepped up its campaign ‘Hisab Mangey Himachal’ against the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh, the party seems to be in no mood to name their chief minister’s candidate for forthcoming Assembly polls in the hill state.
“I will not able to comment on this. The decision rests with the Central Parliamentary Board of BJP,” said Union minister for Law and Justice and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad on repeated questions by media at a press conference. Asked about former CM, Prem Kumar Dhumal in this regard, he just said, “Dhumal is a respected leader.”
Before Prasad, even the national BJP spokesperson, Sambit Patra had mentioned that the ‘BJP will contest election, BJP will win and BJP will have its chief minister.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, aggressively took up the issues against the CM, Virbhadra Singh on the corruption issue. “The CM is on bail and is continuously busy with his court cases. He has no time for the state,” he said.
Prasad said governance was at the lowest ebb in HP and the state government here was not able to even utilise the Central projects and funding properly.
“Prime Minister, Narender Modi is keen on giving much to Himachal personally, but the government here is not interested to use it. That is the reason that the state government is not implementing the schemes quickly, he said. He said the central government had allocated so many National Highways to HP, but the state government has not even made the Detailed Project Report (DPRs), delaying all the projects deliberately. “They don’t want the Centre to take credit of it,” he said.
He appealed to the people of HP to elect BJP government in the state for smooth development.
The Union minister said Gudia gangrape and murder issue had exposed the HP government’s intentions. “It is for the first time that a Police officer of the rank of Inspector General in jail for breaking law,” he said. He appreciated the people of HP for agitation to force the state government to take steps in the wake of biased Police investigation into the case.
He said as a law minister, he had written to the all Chief Justices and the CM in the country for time bound justice to rape victims through fast track courts. He said while all the parties were tight lipped on triple talaq, PM, Narendra Modi had categorically told him to stand by the women in the court.