Dhumal's victory mandate against state government: BJP

Shimla, Jun 6 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh unit of the BJP today asserted that the victory of former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the Hamirpur by-polls was a clear mandate against the state Congress Government's ''four years of misrule.'' Addressing a press conference here, state party president Jai Ram Thakur said the Congress's popularity graph was on the wane with the people losing faith in its policies and programmes.

''People of Himachal have given a clear message that they want a change in state government. The people of the state are fed up with the incompetent Congress government,'' he said.

Mr Thakur said despite Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh leading the party's campaign in Hamirpur parliamentary constituency, it not only lost the elections, but managed to lead in two assembly segments only out of a total of 17.

''The Chief Minister should own moral responsibility for the defeat in Hamirpur and step down as the party failed to get a lead in the 15 assembly segments of the constituency.'' The public has virtually extended an invitation to the BJP to form the next state government by voting against the state Congress and its candidate Forest Minister Ram Lal Thakur.

The BJP has registered and increase of 6.43 per cent of votes in its favour in comparison to the 2004 parliamentary polls, he said.

The BJP's leader said according an assessment on the basis of the results from the Lok Sabha by-polls, the BJP would win at least 60 seats in the forthcoming assembly election in the 68-member assembly.

Claiming that the ''anti-people policies'' of the Congress led to its defeat, he said issues of price hike and ignoring developmental works and widespread corruption in the state government were the reasons for the Congress' defeat.

Besides, the CD released by former Congress leader Vijai Singh Mankotia, also contributed to its defeat, he added.

UNI