With the day passing, both Congress and BJP have intensified their campaign for the Mandi parliamentary by-poll. Leaders of both national parties are blaming each other for the uneven development of the region and advising electorates to vote cautiously. All big guns from both sides including Virbhadra Singh, Prem Kumar Dhumal, Kaul Singh Thakur, Gulab Singh Thakur, Ravinder Singh Ravi, Narinder Bragta, Mahender Singh, Ram Lal Thakur and many more are busing wooing electorates in the region and making all out afford to gain in the last leg of the campaign.
BJP senior leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha Prem Kumar Dhumal launched counter-attack against the state Congress and accused it for indulging in political vendetta to garner votes. In public meetings at Rakhota and Sarkaghat, Dhumal claimed that the UPA regime was on its way out in the coming 2014 Lok Sabha elections as it was mired in scams. Dhumal said that the 2G Spectrum scam, Common Wealth Games scam, Adarsh Housing Society scam, coal block allotment scam, Devas Antriksh scam etc has made the UPA the most corrupt government.
Dhumal targeted the Virbhadra government saying that he has unleashed a regime of political vendetta by ordering transfers of thousands of employees in the state. He blamed Virbhadra Singh for playing a politics of revenge and said that was affecting common people. Former Chief Minister also blamed Congress led Govt for failing to get industrial and financial packages from the Centre despite other non-Congress ruled states like Bihar having availed these packages.
Other BJP leaders including former BJP ministers Gulab Singh Thakur, Ravinder Singh Ravi, Narinder Bragta and Mahender Singh also targeted Congress and accused its party leaders for misleading the electorate of the Mandi parliamentary seat. In a statement BJP senior leaders stated that the Congress had given to the people was price rise and corruption. These leaders also called Pratibha Singh more like a tourist for the people of Mandi.
However, Congress senior leader and CM Virbhadra Singh hold public meetings at Nirmand, Rampur and Nankheri. He launched scattering attack of BJP and called it party of traders and fake. He accused Dhumal government for cheating poor farmers. He said that earlier BJP Govt had sought affidavits from the farmers whose land was encroached upon, promised them to regularise their land to grab votes. But instead of regularising the land, the BJP government lodged thousands of FIRs against the innocent farmers in police stations.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders and 20-point programme chairman Ram Lal Thakur and former minister Rangila Ram Rao termed Dhumal as anti-Mandi and accused him for ignoring Sarkaghat region during his last term. Congress leaders claimed that Dhumal had announced a medical college at Sarkaghat but never opened it. Congress leaders also accused previous Govt for the bad shape of roads and other facilities.
Whereas, Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur accused previous Govt for ignoring Mandi and blamed Dhumal for shifting the technical university, which was to be set up at Sundernagar, and attached several offices of the Mandi division to Hamirpur, his home district.
While talking to the press at Mandi, Thakur accused the Dhumal government for discriminating against Mandi district. He lauded the role of the successive Virbhadra Singh’s regime and claimed that Singh had contributed to large-scale development in all fields in the district.
Kaul Singh claimed that the BJP was misleading the people by launching misinformation campaigns to woo voters, who have decided to vote for Congress candidate Pratibha Singh. He also dismissed BJP’s claims that Pratibha did not use the MPLAD fund when she was an MP. He claimed that a delegation under Pratibha approached UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who approved Rs 1,345 crore and laid the foundation stone of the 8.82-km long Rohtang tunnel. Pratibha distributed funds in all constituencies and Darang got Rs 95 lakh for development from the MPLAD fund.
Kaul Singh also attacked on the BJP senior leaders from Mandi dostrict, Gulab Singh Thakur, Jai Ram Thakur and Mahender Thakur for failing to contribute to the development of the district and also accused them for not raising their voice against the anti-Mandi stance of Prem Kumar Dhumal.
