SHIMLA: Leader of opposition Mukesh Agnihotri with Pratibha Singh, while addressing a rally in Nirmand and Anni areas of Kullu district on Tuesday, hit back at chief minister Jai Ram Thakur’s comment that Pratibha Singh is contesting the election under compulsion.
He said Pratibha Singh is not ‘majboor” but a strong candidate. She belongs to a family that led the Congress party for a long time and played a role in developing the state. Following the demise of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, the chief minister should not think of a Congress candidate as “majboor” and lonely because a woman under all circumstances remains strong. BJP leaders should respect women and refrain from any rude language against Congress leaders.
He asked the Chief Minister to tell what he had given to the state during his four-year rule. While retaliating to the statement of the chief minister that inflation is the result of Congress. When inflation increased during the time of Virbhadra Singh, he started a scheme of cheap ration under PDS. He said that today this scheme is dying in the state. The price of gas cylinders has reached Rs 1100 while petrol is Rs 103 per liter under the BJP rule. He claimed that while the Congress government gave government jobs to educated unemployed youth of the state, today people from outside states are getting government jobs in Himachal Pradesh under BJP. Taking a jibe at the chief minister, Mukesh said that Jai Ram Thakur has no idea of the condition of roads on the ground or public problems because he is flying more on the helicopter and is not keeping his feet on the ground.
He also accused Jai Ram Thakur of throwing the state under a debt burden. He is the first chief minister of state who has taken a Rs 40,000 crore loan in his tenure and, on completion of a full term, he will leave the state under a debt burden of Rs 85,000 crore.
