Shimla, Jan 16
As the political heat generated by the coming general elections grows in otherwise freezing Himachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh will have to ensure that not only he and his MP wife Pratibha Singh emerge unscathed from the payoff charges against them but also that the Congress triumphs.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident of regaining the ground it lost in the 2012 assembly elections as it hopes issues like corruption plaguing the state government's one-year rule will be its major vote plank.
In a state that has four of the Lok Sabha's 543 elected seats, the April-May polls would certainly be a litmus test for the Congress government in just over one year at the helm with the BJP preparing a chargesheet detailing allegations of corruption against Virbhadra Singh to be sent to President Pranab Mukherjee to demand the chief minister's resignation, say political observers.
Undeterred by the allegations, a shrewd Virbhadra Singh said: If the BJP has any evidence, it is free to knock at the door of Lokayukta".
"Our party's core committee has decided to make corruption cases involving Virbhadra Singh a national issue," BJP leader and two-time chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal told IANS.
He said the party would soon launch a "Virbhadra Mukt Himachal" (Himachal rid of Virbhadra) campaign for which signatures would be taken to garner public support.
To gear up its cadres, the BJP has planned a public rally on Feb 16 of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Sujanpur town near Hamirpur, sitting party MP Anurag Thakur's constituency. Thakur is Dhumal's son.
Then, political debutant AAP (Aam Aadmi Party), which stormed to power in the Delhi assembly elections last December, has announced it would name candidates for all four seats and is expected to make a dent in the strongholds of two arch rivals - the Congress and the BJP, believes an observer.
"AAP will definitely upset the electoral arithmetic of the Congress and the BJP," the observer said.
By:IANS