Criticizing the previous Congress regime for focusing on politics of caps and regions instead of development in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday said BJP ended the political divide in the state to ensure balanced development in all assembly segments.

Addressing a public meeting in favour of party candidate from Mandi Lok Sabha seat Brig Khushal Singh Thakur in Mandi assembly segment, Thakur said after BJP came to power in the state, the government had tried to clean the state’s dirty politics.

“Our government ended ‘Red-Green’ cap culture and the debates on upper and lower Himachal, besides, putting a full stop to vendetta politics which was a norm in the past as the BJP wanted to focus on development of the state.

If we, too, had focused on political divides, the development process would have suffered badly as was the case during the previous Congress regime. Now Himachal stands united from Chamba to Sirmaur to Una to Kinnaur as equitable development is being ensured in all areas even during the Covid pandemic.

We have changed the entire political scenario in Himachal and it is the reason that even after completing four years in office in the state, the Congress leaders didn’t have any issue to target the government with,” he added.

He stated that Congress leaders tried to target the government on Covid situation in the state but they should be well aware of the fact that Himachal had managed the pandemic situation better than other states of the country.

In fact, the state government brought back 2.50 lakh persons who were stranded in other states of the country, besides strengthening health infrastructure in the state which the Congress couldn’t do despite remaining in power for a longer period of time.

In addition, the Covid vaccination model had become an example for other states, the CM said.

He lashed at Congress for not working for the welfare of the poor and stated that Centre, as well as state government, had launched various schemes as Ayushman Bharat, Ujjwala, Himcare, Sahara and Shagun for their welfare.

He also took a jibe at star campaigners Kanhaiya Kumar and Navjot Singh Sidhu and further stated that there was a time when scams worth over lakh crore rupees were reported during previous Congress-led UPA regime at Centre.

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi led NDA government didn’t even face a single charge of corruption in its seven years term and now it was being ensured that each rupee was spent on people’s welfare, he added.

He urged the electorate to vote in favour of BJP candidate from Mandi parliamentary constituency Brig Khushal Singh and stated that a strong message should be sent from ‘Chhoti Kashi’ (Mandi) to ‘Badi Kashi’ (Varanasi) in the bypolls.