Rising prices, scams to take toll on Cong in Tehri: BJP

New Delhi, Sept 25: Claiming that people are fed up with the ruling

,

today said it was confident of a victory in the Oct 10 Tehri Lok Sabha bypoll in Uttarakhand due to the steep hike in prices of diesel and petrol by the UPA government at the Centre.

"People are fed up and eager for change due to the steep hike in prices of petrol and diesel as well as a series of scams that have dented the image of the UPA government at the Centre. If free and fair election is held we have no doubt BJP will emerge victorious in the forthcoming bypoll," Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Bhatt told PTI.

Alleging that the last six months of Congress government in the state have been "disappointing", he said Congress' own MLAs have expressed their dissatisfaction with the government with one of them even going to the extent of staging a dharna at Jantar-Mantar in protest against his own government.

"Be it law and order, disaster management or the prolonged agitation over the issue of quota in promotion which badly affected work in government offices for nearly a month, the Bahuguna government has failed on all fronts," the Leader of Opposition said.

Recent cloudbursts and flash-floods in Uttarkashi and Rudraprayag districts would not have caused death and destruction at such a massive scale if precautionary measures had been taken well in advance, Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly said.

"Cloudbursts, landslips and flash-floods are usual during monsoon in Uttarakhand. But no precautionary steps were taken by the state government to minimise the damages in case of a natural calamity," the BJP leader said.

Cloudbursts and flash-floods in the twin districts claimed 80 lives and rendered many more homeless in less than two months since August this year.

Bhatt said the law and order scenario was never as "gloomy" with frequent incidents of gangrapes, loots and thefts reported from different parts of the state.

He said nearly six months of the current fiscal have passed but only 20 per cent of the budget's state plan has been spent so far. "This shows the slow pace of development work in the state," he said.

Though the chief minister's son, Saket is a political greenhorn who is yet to prove himself whereas our nominee is mature and from the erstwhile Tehri royal family which wields great influence over voters in the constituency.

BJP nominee from the seat Mala Raj Laxmi Shah's father-in-law Maharaja Manvendra Shah represented the seat in the Lok Sabha for a record eight times.

PTI