Progress of Himachal will stall if wrong govt voted to power: JP Nadda

Fatehpur (HP): BJP president J P Nadda on Thursday said the progress of Himachal Pradesh will come to a halt if a wrong government comes to power in the hill state.

Addressing a rally here in support of party candidate Rakesh Pathania on the last day of campaigning for the November 12 Assembly polls, Nadda enumerated various projects launched by the "double-engine" BJP governments at the Centre and the state and said, "This is the time for a renewal of the government. When one engine goes down, Himachal goes down.... If a good gardener is not chosen, the garden will be ruined."

Cautioning people against falling for any kind of bait, he said, "Only two days are left for the polls and you should be more vigilant. Be aware of those who come to you in the darkness of the night."

Exhorting people not to vote on the basis of castes and regions, Nadda said, "This election is about your rights for the next five years, so use your vote wisely." He accused the previous Congress-led governments at the Centre and the state of stalling big projects such as the Atal tunnel and the Leh rail project.

"These projects were stuck for years due to the Congress. After the (Narendra) Modi government came to power in 2014, the Atal tunnel project was completed in two years," the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said.

The Cabinet Committee on Security gave its clearance for a railway line to Leh in 2015, but the then Congress government in Himachal Pradesh did not help acquire land for it, he said, adding that the rail line will reach Bilaspur by 2024 under Modi's leadership.

Nadda said the industrial package announced by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government in 2002 attracted pharmaceutical companies from Maharashtra and other places to Himachal.

He alleged that the previous Congress government in the state, headed by former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, discontinued the industrial package following opposition from the Haryana and Punjab governments.

The Centre's vaccination programme against COVID-19 has ensured that people can now sit in rallies without wearing masks, the BJP chief said, adding, "US President Joe Biden always wears a mask. A second lockdown has been imposed in China to control Covid. But you people are sitting together without wearing masks. That is because two doses of the Covid vaccine have been given to everyone for free."