After his week-long visit to Himachal Pradesh in the wake of his appointment as co-incharge for the party affairs in the State, Sanjay Dutt feels the Congress is all set to dethrone the BJP government in the Assembly polls due late next year. The party’s mission is to ‘Save Himachal’ from the misrule of the BJP.
Mr. Dutt, who is also All India Congress Committee secretary, told The Hindu that the BJP government in the State has failed to fulfil its election promises and not only the people of the State, but many of its own leaders are annoyed and disappointed by the governance.
“The BJP in Himachal Pradesh is facing deep factionalism. The government has failed to deliver on all fronts. There are several disgruntled leaders in the BJP, who are in touch with us, who want to switch sides. While I can’t name them till talks get materialised, but I can assure that there’s a lot of discontent and factionalism within the BJP,” said Mr. Dutt.
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‘BJP’s misgovernance’
“In the last four years there has been a complete misgovernance. The mishandling of COVID-19 is the latest example of poor governance. Especially in rural areas where heath facilities are poor, people are suffering badly. The BJP’s failed governance has taken the State back at least 20 years,” he said.
“People expected development in the State when they voted the BJP to power, but instead what they got is rise in unemployment, poor roads, collapsing heath sector and pitiable development of infrastructure. The government failed to do anything concrete for the tourism and allied sectors. The people voted the BJP to power in Himachal as they fell for its ‘double engine’ story. Himachal Pradesh has been completely neglected by the BJP-led Centre,” he said.
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Dismissing that there’s any factionalism in the Congress’s State unit, Mr. Dutt said, “As far as the Congress is concerned, every senior leader has assured that they are united to bring back a Congress government in the State in 2022. I am positive and optimistic that everyone will put joint efforts to achieve the party’s mission. We have to save Himachal and our party stands united to achieve this objective. Suggestions have come up about being more aggressive to raise people-centric issues at macro and micro levels,” he added.
Mr. Dutt said during his recent visit, he had one-to-one interactions with senior party leaders, MLAs, office-bearers and workers and frontal organisations. He said he would reach out to the party workers at the block levels.
‘Outreach plan’
“I will try to reach out to every worker at the block level in the Assembly segments. When we need to get the pulse of any Assembly and block segment, then the ideal way is to go there and meet workers and leaders. My priority is to focus on the 2022 Assembly election and upcoming bypolls for the Mandi Lok Sabha and the two Assembly segments of Fatehpur in Kangra and Jubbal Kotkhai in Shimla district. Besides, we are soon launching the COVID-19 outreach campaign. The party would be reaching out to the front-line health workers and those severely affected by the virus,” he said.