Defeat Congress rebels to restore public faith in democracy: Himachal CM

UNA: Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today lambasted the rebel Congress MLAs who voted against the Congress Rajya Sabha candidate and later joined the BJP. Sukhu was speaking at Samoor village in Kutlehar Assembly segment where one of the six rebel MLAs Devinder Kumar Bhutto is contesting the byelection on the BJP ticket.

Sukhu called upon the people to teach the ‘traitors’ a lesson so that the faith of the common man in democracy was not lost. He said the people had elected the Congress government with a majority in the Assembly and the six MLAs had cheated the people who voted for them.

The Chief Minister recounted various welfare schemes like Sukhashray scheme aimed at adopting orphans and providing them free education, housing and other facilities by the government. He said despite poor financial scenario created by the previous BJP government, the Congress government gave the benefit of Old Pension Scheme to the state government employees.

Sukhu said the state faced unprecedented monsoon disaster in 2023, but despite repeated requests, the Union government gave no relief to the people of the state. He questioned the BJP MPs what efforts they made to help provide relief from their government at the Centre. He said the state provided Rs 4,200 crores relief package.

Sukhu said the Congress government was stable and the party would win the Assembly byelections. He said all Congress workers should get united to defeat the “evil designs of the BJP”.

Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said the BJP had introduced a new type of democracy in the country. As the Lok Sabha elections approached, two Chief Ministers had been sent to jail. Attempts had been made to destabilise the 14-month-old Congress government in Himachal.

Agnihotri said the BJP leaders were trying to label the rebellion as the Congress party’s infighting, but the fact was that all rebels had been given BJP ticket, thus proving that the BJP had orchestrated the entire drama. He claimed that the BJP should forget winning the two Assembly seats in Una district where they have fielded Congress rebels.