Prime Minister Narender Modi is set to lay a strong pitch for the opposition Congress on the completion of four years of the Jai Ram Thakur government in Himachal Pradesh in a big rally being planned in the temple town of Mandi on December 27.
According to the sources, there are indications that the Prime Minister will not only address the big rally in his bid to mitigate the impact of the debacle, but he is also likely to preside over the ground breaking ceremony of some big investment projects including Mandi Green airport project .
Jai Ram Thakur has been pursuing the Green Field airport project day and night to add an extra feather to his political stature in the state as he is the first Chief Minister from the central Region of Mandi. He said the airport will help usher in tourism boom in the state and will aide air connectivity to the strategic border areas of Lahaul-Spiti and Ladakh.
It is, however, another matter that the Left-supported farmers' groups are up in arms against the airport project, claiming that the project will render them landless and rob them of their sources of livelihoods for life, turning the entire fertile Balh valley into a vast concreate ground for the flying machines.
The visit of Prime Minister is significant in view of the recent debacle that the Jai Ram Thakur government suffered from the Congress in four seats- Mandi Lok Sabha, Jubbal-Kotkhai, Arki and Fatehpur losing all the four seats in the recent by-elections.
Also. RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat has been touring Himachal these days to gear up the Sangh parivar. He paid the visit to the goddess of three major Shaktipeeths - Jawaliji, Brijeshwari and Chintpurni and sought their blessings. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and others also met him this week.
Prime Minister is expected to lay a “solid developmental pitch to counter the anti-incumbency factor against the BJP in the coming assembly polls next year”, the party sources said. Another big project hanging fire is the Bhanupalli- Bilaspur Railway line.
Chief Minister airdashed to Mandi today and monitored the arrangements being made for the rally to make it a successful show in Mandi, a home district of Jai Ram Thakur.
Thakur said the government would celebrate four years of good governance in Mandi, where Prime Minister will address the rally. All arrangements are being made for this, he said in Mandi.
Though the opposition Congress had termed the BJP rule as a "failure on all fronts having no achievements to talk about", the state government will highlight its “corruption-free good governance of four years”.
The government will also highlight its achievements including cent percent vaccination of the targeted population, initiatives in natural farming, Him Care, Green field airport project, new pay-scales for employees, enhancements of wages for ASHA, anganvadis and dailywagers, procurement of food grains and other initiatives, cut in petrol and diesel prices and free ration to the poor, said the sources.
The Jai Ram Thakur government got a big jolt in the recent by-elections in Mandi Lok Sabha, where BJP candidate Brig Khushal Thakur lost to Congress candidate, Pratibha Singh, wife of the former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and BJP trailed on nine assembly seats out of 17 that sounded alarm bells for the BJP in the coming 2022 assembly polls.
BJP had also lost all the three assembly seats- Jubbal- Kotkhai in Shimla, Arki in Solan and Fatehpur in Kangra district to the Congress and got a big blow as these three districts fall in three major Lok sabha constituencies in Himachal.
Congress had raked up the issues of price rise, anti-farm laws movement and sought sympathy votes for the former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, an MLA from Arki, who died this year.
The impact of debacle had sent jitters in the country and Centre and state lost no time in announcing waiving off the VAT on petroleum products and cut down the prices by Rs 12 and Rs 17 per liter on Diwali Day in the state.
In this background. Prime Minister's visit is significant in many ways.
(Kuldeep Chauhan is Editor and Publisher, HimbuMail)
