"Jairam Thakur was in tearing hurry to become CM": Himachal Deputy CM over recent political crisis in state

In an exclusive interview with ANI, the Deputy CM took a jibe at the BJP as it failed to bring down the Sukhvinder Singh-led government and faced 'defeat'.

In the aftermath of the political crisis that engulfed the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh during the Rajya Sabha elections, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri slammed the BJP for 'trying to topple the government' in the state. In an exclusive interview with ANI, the Deputy CM took a jibe at the BJP as it failed to bring down the Sukhvinder Singh-led government and faced 'defeat'.

"There was an attempt to topple the Himachal Pradesh government. It has been apparent that the BJP was behind the whole episode of bringing down the state government (Himachal Pradesh)," he said. Taking a jibe at former Chief Minister and the leader of opposition in the state assembly, Agnihotri said that Jairam Thakur was "in a tearing hurry to become the CM of the state".

"Jairam Thakur was in a tearing hurry and he wanted to become the CM. They conspired but faced defeat. The Congress has also challenged it, demanding an inquiry into who was involved in trying the topple the Himachal Pradesh government. The people of Himachal Pradesh are in frustration against the BJP as they tried to de-stabilise the elected government in the state," he added. The Congress leader also said that his party has no fear now as 'Operation Lotus' in the state has failed.

"There is no danger to our government. 'Operation Lotus' in the state has utterly failed, everything is debunked and now the decision will be taken in the people's court," he said. Agnihotri also took a swipe at the BJP, saying that ruling party at the Centre does not have candidates for the upcoming by-polls.

"The BJP which claims to be the biggest party of the world is short of candidates for by-elections and Lok Sabha elections. The BJP is either importing all candidates from the Congress party or importing from Mumbai," he said. Notably, in a sign of increasing troubles for the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded six disqualified Congress rebel MLAs in the Assembly by-polls, days after they joined the party.

All six disqualified Congress MLAs--Rajinder Singh Rana, Sudhir Sharma, Chaitanya Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, and Davinder Bhutto-- had cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan against Congress' senior leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Apart from these six MLAs, three independents--Hoshyar Singh, Ashish Sharma, and K.L. Thakur--also left the Sukhu camp for the BJP, leading to Singhvi's defeat in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Apart from elections in four Lok Sabha constituencies, Himachal Pradesh will witness bypolls in six assembly constituencies, which were previously occupied by the rebel MLAs. In the 68-member assembly constituency, the ruling Congress was in a comfortable majority with the support of 43 MLAs--40 of its own and three independents--after it won the 2022 assembly polls. The remaining 25 MLAs were from the BJP.

With the six rebel MLAs disqualified, the strength of the house came down from 68 to 62 and the halfway mark is 32. With the loss of 6 MLAs the Congress now has 34 MLAs and the BJP with independents, has 28. The fortunes of the Congress will now rest on its ability to keep the rest of its flock together. However, the state Deputy CM further claimed that the BJP is 'against the employees and women of the state and is trying to stop the ongoing schemes to employees and women in the state'.

"There are issues of OPS which has provided lifetime security for the 136,000 employees in the state and we also provided 1500 rupees to women in the state. Notification was done earlier but these BJP people had gone to the election commission and have stopped it. BJP is neither supporting the OPS nor the women," he added. (ANI)

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