Voters show door to those who betrayed them: Himachal CM

Shimla, July 13 (IANS) With the victory of the Congress candidates in two out of three Assembly constituencies in the by-poll on Saturday, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu said voters have shown the door to those who betrayed the faith of the people.

“It is a victory by defeating those who believe in luring people with money power. It was a victory over ‘Dhan Bal’ (money power),” he told the media here.

The Congress has won two seats -- Dehra and Nalagarh, while the BJP won the Hamirpur seat.

The Chief Minister said the voters have delivered a strong rebuke to the politics of horse trading and have voted to maintain political integrity in the state.

“It had been long 25 years since Congress candidate won Dehra,” the Chief Minister said.

In Nalagarh too the Congress candidate secured a significant victory.

“The election outcome has sent a clear message to the entire country and in future no candidate of any party in Himachal Pradesh will dare to engage him or her in horse-trading for the next 50 years,” said the Chief Minister.

He said attempts to destabilise the government since February 28 have been successfully thwarted and the conspiracies aimed at toppling the democratically elected government failed.

With this victory, the number of Congress MLAs in the assembly has risen to 40 again.

Sukhu criticised Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Jai Ram Thakur for his repeated claims of forming the BJP government in the state. He said despite the clear mandate of the public, Thakur continued misleading the people by making false and exaggerated claims.

The Chief Minister also condemned the deeds of three Independent MLAs and said these three have imposed the bye-election on the people by conspiring to overthrow the government.

“Rather than supporting the Opposition in the Assembly, these MLAs left the state for a month and staged a protest to have their resignations accepted outside the Vidhan Sabha. The public has given a befitting reply to their obstinacy through the election results, also a good lesson for all those who were trying to destabilise the Congress government in the state,” he added.