By PTI
SHIMLA: Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot today accused the BJP of using enormous resources and money in the Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh as it was scared of defeat.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal charisma has waned.
"Modi magic has cease to work in Himachal and the BJP which had been claiming that Modi would be the party's face in the state has been forced to declare former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal as the party's CM face," he told reporters.
"The modest campaign launched by the Congress, spearheaded by chief minister Virbhadra Singh has baffled the BJP and it has been compelled to change the strategy and declare Dhumal as leader just nine days before the poll, but it would not help the party which lost the polls under the leadership of Dhumal in 2012," Pilot said.
The main poll plank of the Congress party is development as under the leadership of Virbhadra Singh, the Congress government has done unprecedented development of the state, he said, adding that "money power" of the BJP would have no effect on poll prospects of the Congress.
"Besides the prime minister and the BJP chief, they have engaged a battery of about 20 senior leaders including 13 central ministers in the campaign, but they will not be able to influence the voters in Himachal as they are all literate and politically aware.
"The fact that the Modi government has only harassed the common man has gone deep into the mind of people and they are aware that Modi's reckless decisions of demonetisation and GST led to price rise and caused great hardship to the business community and also hurt the consumers," he said.
Taking strong exception to the language used by Prime Minister Modi in the rallies in the state against the chief minister, Pilot said, "This does not behove a leader of the stature of Prime Minister of India." He criticised the central investigation agencies for dancing to the tunes of the central government.
"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) are being used as tools by the Centre to harass political opponents," he said.
Pilot said that the CBI and the ED were "not interested" in investigation into scams involving BJP leaders, whether it was Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan.
