Congress confident of winning Himachal second time, says Singhvi

With the election campaigning coming to an end this evening in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress party claimed that it is confident of retaining the state, and said that the second stint of Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh would come on the basis of it hard work done by him during the last five years as compared to the earlier BJP government.

New Delhi, Dec 17 : With the election campaigning coming to an end this evening in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress party claimed that it is confident of retaining the state, and said that the second stint of Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh would come on the basis of it hard work done by him during the last five years as compared to the earlier BJP government.

Speaking to media persons in the Capital today, party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the previous BJP government in the state had given a negative budgetary balance of around 15,000 crore rupees, which the present incumbent turned around, besides extending indirect jobs to around 35,000 people by implementing several tax-holiday schemes.

He added that while the previous chief minister has retrenched between 30,000 and 33,000 government employees during his stint, the Congress chief minister had, on the contrary, given employment to around 35,000 people.

Claiming that his party would retain Himachal, he also cited several developmental projects undertaken by Virbhadra Singh, with one of those being the Rohtang Pass tunnel project at an estimated cost of over 1500 crore rupees.

He stated that the present state government undertook an intense electrification drive under the Rajive Gandhi Vidyutikiran Yojna, helping thousands of villages in the state.

He also said that while the previous state government witnesses intense cribbing between the then chief minister PK Dhumal and the then union minister Shanta Kumar, the present incumbent had given the state clear and transparent governance.

ANI