Jairam Thakur did not develop Hamirpur to weaken Dhumal: CM Sukhu

Hamirpur (HP): Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Wednesday alleged that former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur ignored Hamirpur to weaken ex-CM P K Dhumal.

Addressing a series of election meetings in support of Congress nominee Pushpinder Verma, the candidate for Hamirpur assembly by-poll, Sukhu said, "The Hamirpur district suffered a great loss due to Prem Kumar Dhumal's defeat as Jai Ram Thakur discriminated against the district.

"Neither any minister was made from Hamirpur nor any development work was undertaken in the Hamirpur district in the last tenure of the Jai Ram government."

Referring to himself, he said the Congress made a chief minister from lower Himachal for the first time but three MLAs from his own district were allegedly involved in the conspiracy to topple the government.

Nine MLAs, including six Congress rebels and three Independents, had voted against the Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections held in February.

He claimed that when there was an attempt to topple the Congress government, 34 MLAs from Shimla, Kangra, Sirmaur, Kullu, Una, Chamba and other districts stood with him like a rock, but three MLAs from Hamirpur "betrayed" him and Ashish Sharma, the BJP candidate for Hamirpur seat, was one of them.

Sukhu alleged the former Independent MLA made money by looting the mineral wealth. He was an independent MLA, if the Congress government was not working, he could have sat in the opposition with the BJP, what the need was to resign, the CM asked.