The 10-day Monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha, commencing on Friday, is likely to begin on a stormy note with the Opposition trading its guns on the Congress regime for unleashing political vendetta against its political opponents.
With Assembly elections due by the end of next year, the political temperatures are soaring as the Vigilance Bureau has brought many BJP leaders, including sitting MLA’s under scanner. The BJP is all set to target the state government over what it terms as ‘witch hunt’ to gain political mileage with an eye on the Assembly elections.
In the recent past, cases have been registered against several leaders, including BJP State president Rajeev Bindal, MLA’s- Sukh Ram Chaudhary, Sudhir Sharma, Ashish Sharma and former MLA’s Hoshiyar Singh and Rajinder Rana.
The latest addition in this list if Bharmour legislator Dr Janak Raj, who was quizzed by the Vigilance Bureau on Thursday.
Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur has time and again reiterated that the government cannot suppress the voice of the Opposition by registering false cases against them. “It is out of sheer political vendetta that Opposition leaders are being implicated in false and fabricated cases which will not be tolerated,” he said.
The BJP will also try to rake up the issue of unfulfilled guarantees given by the Congress at the time of 2022 Assembly polls and the deteriorating law and order situation, and forest, mining, liquor and drug mafia being active in the state.
The Congress on the other hand will yet again try to corner the BJP by accusing the Modi-led BJP regime of not extending any financial help to Himachal, over and above what is due to every state.
“The Centre has been meting out step motherly treatment to cash-strapped Himachal and despite withdrawal of the revenue deficit grant (RDG), Himachal has not been compensated,” said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan.
Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kuldeep Pathania on Thursday chaired an all-party meeting attended by Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan, to seek everyone’s cooperation for the smooth conduct of the session.
The other issues which could echo in the Assembly prominently is the vacancies in health and educational institutions, especially in the tribal, remote and difficult areas. The issue of the notified government CBSE schools not being provided with teaching staff is likely to be raked up by the MLA’s.
The MLA’s have so far filed 1,036 questions on which replies have been sought from the government. A large number of these questions pertain to the damages suffered by government infrastructure during the current Monsoon session. The government could also bring in some Bills, to be passed by the Vidhan Sabha.
