Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], November 1 (ANI): BJP MP Anurag Thakur on Sunday accused the Congress-led Himachal Pradesh government of failing to fulfil its promises and alleged that the party was using its protest over alleged vote theft to divert attention from its failures in the state.
Speaking to the media after a padyatra and public rally organised by the BJP in Shimla, Thakur said the Congress government had failed to deliver on its guarantees and was now staging protests in Delhi to evade accountability.
"The Himachal Pradesh Congress government has not been able to do anything in the state. Its guarantees have failed, and now it has gone to Delhi to save itself from accountability. They should ask what happened to Priyanka Gandhi's guarantees and Rahul Gandhi's guarantees. This drama by the Congress is not acceptable to the country," he said.
Reacting to the Congress-led opposition's protest in Delhi, where demonstrators had gathered outside Himachal Bhawan and raised slogans, Thakur accused opposition parties of attempting to create anarchy in the country through allegations of vote theft.
He asserted that India would never become like Bangladesh, Nepal, Libya or Syria, adding that the country's democratic institutions remained strong.
"An attack on the Constitution, an attack on the Sikh community, and now they are bent on attacking democracy and spreading anarchy. However, the people of the country will never allow India to become Bangladesh, Nepal, Libya or Syria. India's democracy is strong, and under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, India has become the world's fourth-largest economy. The country will continue to progress further," Thakur said.
He further alleged that foreign forces, funding and external support were being used by the opposition to destabilise the country, claiming that such attempts would not succeed.
"Foreign toolkits, foreign money, foreign forces and foreign friends cannot help the opposition overthrow the government in India. The rally being held in Delhi is a drama by the Congress and opposition. Nothing is going to happen through it. The people of the country are watching," he said.
Defending the ongoing revision of electoral rolls, Thakur said the exercise was aimed at removing the names of deceased voters, people who had shifted residences and duplicate entries.
"If a person has died, his vote should be deleted. If someone has shifted, his vote should be deleted. Duplicate votes should be removed. If a person is no longer residing at his address, his name should be removed. This is what is happening," he said.
Questioning the opposition's claim that a large number of voters had been deleted from electoral rolls, Thakur said such a large-scale deletion would have triggered widespread public outrage.
"If 13 crore people's votes had been deleted, there would have been an uproar across the country. That is not the case," he said.
Thakur's remarks came as opposition leaders and thousands of supporters from across the country gathered at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on Sunday for the INDIA bloc's 'Chalo Delhi' protest march, raising concerns over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and alleged irregularities in electoral rolls. (ANI)
Congress has failed Himachal, using vote theft allegations to divert attention: Anurag Thakur
