BJP launches phase two of 'Himachal Mange Hisaab' campaign in bid to wrest state from Congress

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh BJP on Sunday launched the second phase of the ‘Himachal Mange Hisaab’ campaign by releasing two video series titled ‘Vidhayakji Jawab Do’ and ‘Main Hoon Himachal’ respectively. The first phase of the campaign was launched earlier in the run-up to the state Assembly polls due later in 2017. Launching the second phase of the campaign at a press meet in Bilaspur, Union minister JP Nadda and Leader of Opposition in the Himachal Assembly PK Dhumal said the two video series aimed at “leveraging the public discontent” against the ruling Congress in the state. They added that the ‘Vidhayakji Jawab Do’ series would feature 36 videos, with the voters seeking accountability from the 36 Congress MLAs of the state and reminding them of their “unfulfilled” promises. [caption id=“attachment_4097245” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] The BJP leaders said it was “shocking” that most of these MLAs had been given cabinet berths or made parliamentary secretaries or given other positions, but no developmental work had been carried out at the ground level in the state. Dhumal alleged that the Virbhadra Singh-led government had miserably failed to resolve the key issues such as water shortage, dilapidated roads, inadequate public transport, staff shortage in educational and health institutions etc. Regarding ‘Main Hoon Himachal’, the former chief minister said citizens’ issues and the “insensitive and callous” attitude of the government towards those problems were reflected in the video series. Dhumal alleged that Himachal had been in the grip of various mafias patronised by the government, adding that another “parallel mafia” had ruined the state’s economy and the funds meant for development were being pocketed by the leaders of the Congress party. Conversations with the youth, women, government employees, farmers and those from various other sections of the society had been recorded in the videos to highlight the “miserable plight” of the people and “public response towards the apathetic attitude” of the government, he said. The message of the campaign would be propagated through multimedia, the veteran BJP leader said, adding that 7,000 WhatsApp groups had been created by the BJP IT cell and anyone could give a missed call on 7574068068 to receive the links of the videos through text messages. Union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, who is the BJP poll in-charge for Himachal, the party’s organisational in-charge Mangal Pandey, state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti and MP Anurag Thakur were present on the occasion.