SHIMLA:
Congress party has won the assembly elections in Punjab with a thumping majority but in
Himachal Pradesh
it is facing the challenge to retain power. Assembly elections are due in November this year and chief minister
Virbhadra Singh, playing down the 'Modi wave', claimed that Congress would form government in state once again after polls.
The way Captain Amarinder Singh has steered Congress to power in Punjab, Virbhadra hopes for the same in Himachal, who is continuing as chief minister for the sixth term. But, no government has been able to repeat itself after five years. However, Virbhadra said this time Congress would be successful in ensuring "mission repeat".
He said Congress has already won Punjab while party has maximum number of seats in Goa and Manipur. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is heading the government in the Centre and it can manipulate elections in state. He said there is need of reorganization at national level in the Congress.
The party and Virbhadra may be claiming to repeat the government, but before assembly elections party is facing the challenge to win the by-election at Bhoranj assembly seat in April followed by
Shimla Municipal Corporation
election in May.
Leader of opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal said performance of BJP in Uttar Pradesh and
Uttarakhand
has shown that people want development and same goes for Himachal. He said that in last four years, the state has witnessed negligible development as Virbhadra-led government remained busy in handling his court cases. He said after coming to power in 2012, Congress did not fulfil its promise of unemployment allowance and now, ahead of election, it announced Rs 150 crore in budget, but no guidelines have been framed. Dhumal said law and order is in bad shape while people are not getting safe drinking water. He said Bhoranj by-election would set the tone of BJP's mission 50-plus.
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