Cong harping over curtailment of tenure to gain sympathy: BJP

Shimla, May 19 (UNI) BJP today took a dig at repeated reference by former chief minister Virbhadra Singh that his tenure was cut short by three months due to the preponement of assembly elections, saying "what the previous Congress Government had failed to achieve in years could it have achieved in three months?" "Instead of focussing on campaigning in favour of its candidate for the by-polls Mr Singh is repeatedly crying over the curtailment of his government's tenure and trying to collect sympathy,'' state party president Jai Ram Thakur said here.

"The last five years of Congress goverment would be remembered by the people of the state for widespread corruption and rising prices of food items," he said.

"Mr Singh has always resorted to baseless allegations and assertions once out of power and his role in instigating the government employees during the Shanta Kumar Government's tenure between 1990 and 1992 was well known. Once again he repeated this between 1998 and 2003 by accusing the previous Prem Kumar Dhumal's Government of being involved in irregularities in jobs and widespread corruption, but failed to prove anything during his own tenure," he added.

"Mr Singh has again resorting to those tactics by issuing statements on price rise, SEZs and discrimination with old Himachal in terms of development," he said.

Claiming that BJP will emerge successful in the Hamirpur bypolls to be held on May 22, Mr Thakur said, "The people of the state would give a fitting reply to the Congress and ensure that its candidate wins the elections with record margin." UNI AS PS BK1844