By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 30 Jan: Union Minister and state election in-charge for the BJP Pralhad Joshi today said that his party would start its formal election campaign from 1 February onwards. He also disclosed that the party would also launch its manifesto for the state elections on the same day. Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar and Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur would be present on the occasion besides Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and other local BJP leaders.
Joshi was addressing a press conference at a local hotel today.
On this occasion, Joshi also released an election theme song on behalf of the party. The Theme Song has been sung by Bollywood singer Jubin Nautiyal. He said that, for the purpose of a safe election campaign during the Corona period, public meetings would be organised in all 70 assemblies following the Covid guidelines set by the Election Commission. The participation of common people would also be ensured through t LED screens in the virtual public meetings to be held during this period.
Joshi claimed that Uttarakhand, with the blessings of Badri Kedar, was progressing rapidly under the leadership of the BJP government and under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was the result of double engine coordination that development projects costing more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore were being implemented in Devbhoomi. He said that, in the past, Congress too had an opportunity to run a double engine government but the then Union Government and then state government had failed to do any major work for the people of the state.
Pralhad Joshi said that, at the time of the Kedarnath disaster, PM Modi’s request to join hands in the reconstruction work in Kedar Dham was turned down by the then Congress governments due to political hatred. But Baba Kedarnath chose his exclusive devotee Modi for the reconstruction and beautification of his Dham. So far, schemes worth Rs 2500 crores had been approved for Kedarpuri and Rs 500 crores for Badrinath Dham.
Targeting the Congress, he said that the people of Devbhoomi knew very well that in case that party’s government, which raised the slogan of ‘Char Dham Char Kaam’, came to power, the only focus of that party would be to plunder the state. He sought to remind that as CM, the biggest face of Congress in Uttarakhand had been seen giving licence to his cabinet colleagues to loot his own state. On the other hand, the BJP Government had successfully completed all the schemes operated in the state under the zero tolerance for corruption policy. But the Congress-commission governments were unable to even imagine schemes worth lakhs of crores to be run flawlessly like this.
Joshi claimed that the Indian National Congress Party had now become the Indian National Confusion Party due to Rahul Gandhi’s habit of spreading his own confusion across his party. It was the result of this same confusion that Harish Rawat, who was talking earlier of not contesting any election, was now running from one constituency to another for fear of losing.
Joshi also claimed that Congress party was a Hindu party for the sake of convenience only during the elections. Today, it was claiming love for the armed forces, while it never bothered about the welfare of soldiers and ex-soldiers and kept the most crucial demand of One Rank One Pension pending for several decades. However, Modi, soon after coming to power, implemented the demand. The Congress Government even failed to procure most crucial defence equipment and ammunition despite several timely warnings by the Parliamentary Committee on Defence.
Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni, BJP State President Madan Kaushik, General Secretary Kuldeep Kumar and Party Spokesman Suresh Joshi were among those present on the occasion.
