Sukhu Government Is Afraid of the People's Verdict, Deliberately Delaying Elections to Facilitate Horse-Trading: Jai Ram Thakur
BJP-Backed Candidates Win Around 70% of Panchayats; Congress Faces Massive Defeat in Local Body Elections
BJP to Prepare List of Officers Misusing Authority to Stall Democratic Process; Will Fight from Courts to the Streets
Shimla: Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, while addressing a press conference in Shimla, accused the Congress government of undermining democracy by misusing the administrative machinery to manipulate the outcome of Panchayati Raj and Urban Local Body elections. He alleged that after failing to prevent the elections, the state government is now deliberately delaying the election of Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons in an attempt to facilitate horse-trading and overturn the people's mandate.
Jai Ram Thakur said the Congress government initially made every possible effort to postpone the elections by invoking the Disaster Act, altering election rules and creating procedural hurdles. However, following the intervention of the High Court and ultimately the Supreme Court, the elections had to be conducted before the court-mandated deadline. Despite this, he alleged that the government is refusing to complete the democratic process by withholding the election schedule for key leadership posts in local bodies.
Presenting what he described as evidence of the public mood, Thakur claimed that BJP-backed candidates won around 70 percent of the Panchayat Pradhan and Up-Pradhan posts, reflecting widespread public dissatisfaction with the Congress government. He further stated that the BJP also secured impressive victories in Urban Local Body elections, including a clear majority in the Dharamshala Municipal Corporation, where the BJP won 11 of the 17 seats.
Highlighting the figures, Jai Ram Thakur claimed that only 3 out of the 12 Zila Parishads have completed the election of Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons, and in all three places, Congress allegedly failed to even field candidates. He further stated that only 47 out of the 92 Block Development Committees (BDCs) have completed elections for their leadership posts, with BJP-backed candidates winning 31 of them, while Congress secured 16. He alleged that wherever the BJP enjoys a majority, the government is deliberately withholding election dates.
The Leader of Opposition also accused the government of intimidating BJP-backed elected representatives through vigilance inquiries, false cases, transfers of relatives, and administrative pressure to influence the democratic process. He cited alleged irregularities in the election process at Sujanpur Municipal Council and claimed that established voting procedures were ignored.
Jai Ram Thakur announced that the BJP is preparing a list of officers who, according to the party, are acting under political pressure by delaying elections or targeting BJP-backed elected representatives through administrative action. He warned that such actions would be legally challenged.
He alleged that the Congress government has crossed every democratic limit by refusing to accept the people's verdict. According to him, the results of the Panchayat and Urban Local Body elections clearly indicate that public confidence in the Sukhu government has eroded significantly.
Concluding the press conference, Jai Ram Thakur warned that if the government does not immediately announce the election schedule for Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons and stop interfering in the democratic process, the Bharatiya Janata Party will intensify its agitation through both legal and public democratic means. He asserted that the local body election results have already sent a clear political message that the people of Himachal Pradesh are prepared for change in the next Assembly elections.