Take revenge for shifting of Indo-Pak match venue: Anurag

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur on Sunday asked the public to vote for BJP candidates in municipal corporation elections here and take “revenge” on the state government for shifting the Indo-Pak T-20 World Cup match from Dharamsala to Kolkata.

“This Congress government denied the possibility of Indo-Pak match in Dharamsala, resulting in losses of crores of rupees to the public and business community. The public must take revenge for this by voting for BJP candidates in Dharamsala Municipal Corporation elections,” he said.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, however, had clarified in a statement earlier that the state government had never refused to provide security for the India-Pakistan cricket match at Dharamsala and the decision to shift the venue to Kolkata was of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The elections to 17-member Dharamsala Municipal Corporation would be held on March 27 and the results would be declared the same day.

Dharamsala was upgraded from Municipal Council to Municipal Corporation on September 21 last year and became the second Municipal Corporation in Himachal Pradesh after Shimla.