Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, claiming a direct correlation between the latter’s campaign visits and the Congress party’s electoral losses.
Thakur’s sharp critique came in the wake of the West Bengal assembly elections, where he highlighted the performance of a Congress candidate in a constituency specifically visited by CM Sukhu for campaigning. “In West Bengal, where CM Sukhu went to campaign, a Congress candidate managed to secure merely 650 votes and his deposit was forfeited,” Thakur stated.
Addressing the media after inaugurating party election offices in Mandi, the former Chief Minister did not mince words. “It is now proven beyond doubt that wherever CM Sukhu goes to campaign, the Congress party faces inevitable defeat. The people of the state and the entire country have now understood that CM Sukhu only speaks lies,” he asserted.
Thakur elaborated on this alleged pattern of electoral failure, suggesting that the Chief Minister’s public addresses lack credibility. “No one is influenced by his words and misleading claims any longer. Earlier too, wherever he went for campaigning, he spoke falsehoods, and the result was that the Congress had to face defeat everywhere,” he added, specifically citing Assam as a state where the Chief Minister’s campaign brought no benefit to the party.
The BJP leader also fiercely countered CM Sukhu’s recent statement casting doubts on the integrity of Electronic Voting Machines. Thakur labelled it a convenient excuse. He said, “The very EVMs on whose strength the Congress government was formed in Himachal Pradesh are now being blamed for defeats in other states. This has become the attitude of CM Sukhu and the Congress party: wherever they lose, they shift the blame onto the EVMs.”
Defending the election process, Thakur noted that numerous elections have been conducted transparently across the country using EVMs. “Elections have been held not once but multiple times through EVMs, and all were completed with full transparency. Congress governments themselves have been formed in many states using these machines. But blaming the EVMs in times of defeat is not right,” he stated.
The rebuttal came after CM Sukhu made a controversial statement on Monday, claiming that “EVM machines can be hacked by anyone, anywhere.” The Chief Minister had specifically raised questions about the voting percentage during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Himachal Pradesh, stating that the Congress vote share had plummeted historically, which was not normal. He mentioned having expressed apprehensions about EVMs back then as well, but his concerns were not believed. CM Sukhu had also stated that his government had fulfilled its 10 guarantees.
Leader of the Opposition Jairam Thakur has leveled serious allegations against the incumbent Congress government. He stated that the Sukhu government is continuously claiming to have fulfilled all its electoral guarantees in the state; however, this claim is entirely false and baseless. Jairam Thakur also launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s performance and his public statements.
Speaking to the media, Jairam Thakur remarked that Chief Minister Sukhu appears to know no other job than to simply lie to the public. He alleged that the guarantees promised by the state government prior to the elections remain unfulfilled at the grassroots level to this day. According to him, the Congress party’s assertion that all promises have been fulfilled is merely a charade that bears no relation to reality.
