Countering the Bharatiya Janata Party’s high-voltage campaign in Himachal Pradesh with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing several rallies across the State, senior Congress leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit, held rallies across the hill State.
Condemning the Prime Minister’s remark likening the Congress to “termites”, Capt. Singh said it was a sign of desperation that the BJP had brought its entire leadership including several union ministers to campaign in the small hill State. The Prime Minister is also doing frantic rounds of the tiny State that is inexplicable, he said.
“If the Congress was a termite, the country would have collapsed by now, but instead it has progressed a lot in the past 70 years,” Capt. Singh said.
The Congress leader, who addressed a rally in Fatehpur in support of senior Congress Minister Sujan Singh Pathania and another at Nachan in Mandi, said he had assessed a total anti-BJP swing in the hill State. He said the Modi-led BJP’s ill-conceived decisions like demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) had brought the people to their knees and disillusioned them completely from the party.
Mocks bullet train
He also ridiculed the Prime Minister’s decision to bring in the bullet train at a huge cost on the exchequer and offering rides at prices higher than airline tickets.
Pointing out that Himachal Pradesh had witnessed huge development on all counts under the present government, the Punjab Chief Minister said the people of the hill State still wanted continued progress and peace, which only the Congress could give them.