Mankotia BSP's chief minister candidate, says HP BSP

Hamirpur, Sep 4 (UNI) The Himachal Pradesh unit of the BSP today named Major Vijay Singh Mankotia as the party's chief ministerial candidate for in the next state assembly elections.

Addressing a press conference here, party's All India Secretary Man Singh Manehra said the party has decided to name Mr Mankotia as its party's chief ministerial candidate for the next state assembly elections that are due in February next year.

He accused the BJP and the Congress of failing to live up to the expectations of the people of the state and said the people have already decided to vote against both these parties.

The BSP would expose both the parties as they had failed on all fronts and were responsible for ignoring to develop the hill state, he said.

Mr Manhera accused the state Congress government of promoting ''contractor raj'' and harming the cause of the working class.

''The chief minister is promoting and helping the corrupt. He is himself (chief minister) involved in so many cases of nepotism and corruption,'' he claimed.

Referring to the death of a four-year old boy in Shimla recently, while parallel rallies of the BJP and Congress were going on, he said both the parties need to share the blame for that.

He demanded a judicial enquiry into the death of the child as the present police enquiry would not help in bringing about the truth.

Major Mankotia, who was also present in the conference, called upon all non Congress and BJP parties to contest elections under one banner to vote out the corrupt Congress government in the state.

''The present state government is one of the worst state government's ever and therefore must go.'' He also termed the BJP the B team of the Congress and said it was no different from the ruling party.

Earlier, the BSP's secretary Man Singh Manehra addressed a meeting of party workers and exhorted them to ensure the Congress' defeat in the assembly elections.

UNI