Election panel catches Cong off guard in HP

The commission has preponed dates for Assembly polls

CHANDIGARH: If the Election Commission’s announcement about the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh has caught the Congress on the backfoot, it has brought cheers to the BJP, the main opposition party in the state.

The elections to the 68 Vidhan Sabha seats were slated to take place in February. But they have been preponed by more than two months.

According to EC schedule, in the first phase on November 14, three tribal constituencies, Kinnaur, Bharmour and Lahul-Spiti, which would get cut off from the rest of the country due to snowfall, would go to poll while the rest of the state would go to poll on December 19.

The Congress, which enjoys an overwhelming majority with 47 members in the House, has, however, been caught off guard this time.

With the model code of conduct coming into effect after the announcement of the election schedule,  the ruling Congress government stands deprived of the chance to deliver pre-election sops that it had planned for the next two months.

Chief minister Virbhadra Singh was quick to react saying that he had been “practically ambushed” as many development programmes would go haywire.

The government had planned a number of events during the next two months which included setting up of a central university in Dharamshala, an IIT in Mandi, granting promotion to teachers, increasing retirement age of government employees as also giving them an additional instalment of dearness allowance.
 
The working committee of the state Congress met here on Friday and resolved to seek votes on the performance of the government, both, in the state as well as at the Centre.

Vidya Stokes, a cabinet minister, said the Congress had nothing to fear from the preponement of elections since it continued to enjoy the confidence of the people in the state.

Besides widespread development, the Congress had provided corruption-free government, she added.