Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu predicted that the Lotus won’t bloom in the state as the BJP workers are dejected for tickets having been given to sold-out MLAs.

On the last day of the campaign and public meetings at Dharamshala, Dehra, Dharampur, Sujanpur, and Kutlehar on Thursday, Sukhu, referring to the six former Congress MLAs who joined BJP and were contesting the bye-election, said, “BJP will have to bite the dust not only in Lok Sabha elections but also in the six assembly seats. The by-elections are being held for three and a half years. The real election of BJP workers will be in 2027.”

They should vote rising above party ideology to defeat money power, he added. “Former CM and Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur is suffering from heat stroke and can say anything. He is not a leader of his words. Lacking logic, he is making absurd statements. Our government gave the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) to the employees, the employee who used to get a Rs 5,000 pension is now getting Rs 50,000. This has made Jai Ram Thakur panicky,” he alleged.

Aiming at Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and BJP candidate for Hamirpur, Anurag Thakur he accused him of suffering from a phobia of lying as he is misleading people on Jol Sappar Medical College and Railway Line.

“Anurag Thakur became a captain after lieutenant in the Territorial Army and made the youth Agniveer. This is a big betrayal of the youth of the country. Agniveer Yojana will be stopped as soon as the India Alliance government is formed,” he claimed.

He said with what face is BJP fighting this election when it sold its lotus to the sellable MLAs. The condition of BJP, which calls itself the biggest party, has reached such a stage that it has to field candidates by selling lotus. The Chief Minister said that the public will now explain the culture of Himachal to the 9 sellable MLAs, including three independents. They are sure to stay at home. They have bought lotus by selling hands.

The chief minister appealed to the people to vote for the four Lok Sabha candidates Anand Sharma (Kangra), Satpal Raijada (Hamirpur), Vikramaditya Singh (Mandi), Vinod Sultanpuri (Shimla) and six Assembly bye-election candidates Captain Ranjit, Vivek Sharma, Devendra Jaggi, Subhash Dhatwalia, Anuradha and Rakesh Kalia.

“Congress has given tickets to honest candidates. Priority was given considering their clean image. After the election campaign ends, voters still have 24 hours to think about why they are going to cast their vote. Is it because six sell-out Rajendra Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Chaitanya Sharma, Devendra Kumar Bhutto, and Indradutt Lakhanpal have sold themselves? They bought the withered lotus by selling their hands,” he charged, adding that the real election of genuine BJP workers will be in 2027 because then candidates will be selected according to their choice.

The chief minister, appealing to the public to make people’s power win and defeat money power, said, “If money power wins by mistake then the power of people’s vote will be lost. People will elect MLAs by voting and BJP will buy them. Therefore, there is a need to send a strong message that the politics of horse-trading will not work in Himachal Pradesh by defeating BJP.”