Congress' popularity in HP declining, says Mankotia

Shimla, Apr 11 (UNI) Former Himachal Pradesh Tourism minister and senior Congress leader Vijai Singh Mankotia today urged the party high command to take effective steps to check the ''declining popularity of the party in the state.

''It is high time the party takes stock of the situation with assembly elections just one and a half year away,'' he said at a press conference here.

Mr Mankotia said he had already informed the high command about the declining popularity of the state government and the reasons behind it.

He said the party high command had assured him that they were aware of the situation and were in the process of initiating corrective steps.

Continuing with his tirade against the Virbhadra Singh Government, he said the party had always lost the assembly elections under Mr Singh, except in 1985, when elections were held early and the Congress in the entire country got the advantage of sympathy wave in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination.

Mr Mankotia had on April six accused a senior state government official of being neck deep in corruption, while leveling several serious allegations of using his official position to amass huge wealth.

Replying to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's threat to file a defamation case against him, he said, ''the chief minister is welcome to file a defamation suit against me''.

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