BJP kicks off campaign for corporation elections

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, January 21

Repeating the BJP government in Himachal in elections scheduled in 2022 was a matter of prestige for national president of party JP Nadda.

“The party unit in Himachal would leave no stone unturned in achieving Mission Repeat. We have already started working on it”, said Avinash Rai Khanna, party in charge of the BJP for Himachal while addressing a press conference at Dharamsala today.

Khanna claimed that the party had received a massive mandate in the elections to the municipal councils and panchayats in the state. The mandate received by the BJP in the panchayat and municipal council elections was an approval of the working of state government led by Jai Ram Thakur, he said.

Asked if the present Chief Minister would be the face of the party for the next Assembly elections, Khanna said that though the Chief Minister was very popular and successful as the head of the state, it was too early to say who would be the face of the party in the next Assembly elections. It was not the practice of the party to declare its face or strategy for the next elections before the election process starts that is two years from now.

Khanna said that as part of the Mission Repeat the party had asked all its MLAs to prepare their report cards for the past three years, including the development works they had carried out in their areas and reach out to people in their respective areas.

Asked about the zero tolerance to corruption policy of the BJP and as to why no action has been taken against the ministers and officials in the present government against whom corruption allegations had been levelled, Khanna said that the party was keeping a close watch on all allegations being levelled and if any of them is found to be involved action would be initiated at an appropriate time.

He said that four corporations, namely Dharamsala, Palampur, Mandi and Solan, would be going to elections soon. Out of these four corporations, three have been upgraded by the present BJP government. “The party is aiming to win all the four corporations in the state. Our effort is to give consensus candidates in corporation elections so that division in votes can be averted”, he said.

Sources said that Khanna met some dissident party leaders in Palampur to pacify them to boost the chances of BJP in first corporation elections to be held there. He shall also be calling on veteran BJP and former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar in Palampur who lost his wife to Covid recently.