Ex Himachal Chief Minister's Son On Taking Forward His Development Model

Congress MLA Vikramaditya Singh, son of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, on Friday said the party will work on taking his father's development model forward in the state if voted to power.

Addressing a press conference in Shimla on Friday, the outgoing Congress MLA from Shimla Rural Assembly constituency said, "We held a lot of discussions on the polling for the Assembly (on November 12) and the trends seem to be in our favour. There will be more clarity on the outcome once the votes (for Himachal) are counted on December 8. We have full faith in the voters and are confident that the Congress will form the government in Himachal Pradesh on December 8."

Claiming a strong anti-incumbency against the BJP in the state, Vikramaditya claimed that the outgoing government led by Chief Minister Jairam Thakur did not work 'on the ground'.

Reiterating that the party will fulfill its '10 guarantees' to the people if brought back to power in the hill-state, the Congress MLA said, "I want to assure the people of the state that we will fulfill our 10 guarantees in the manifesto, if elected. We will implement the 'Old Pension Scheme', under which pension to government employees is to be paid on the basis of their last drawn salary, in the state. The government will also provide a monthly grant of Rs 1,500 each to women aged between 18 and 60 years, as well as a package of Rs 680 crore for the youth."

On the party's efforts to win over outsourced and contractual workers in the state, Vikramaditya said, "During our door-to-door campaigns, we met many outsourced, contractual, Anganwadi and Asha workers, SMC teachers and several other workers' delegations. They told us that they have high hopes from the Congress. We will work to resolve the problems of these workers within a specific time frame, if elected."

On whether the party was worried about electoral foul play in Himachal, the Congress MLA said, "We saw 2-3 instances of EVM tampering during poling in the state. In the first instance in Rampur, an EVM was being transported in a private car, which is against the standard operating procedure as laid down by the EC. We welcome the inquiry that the Commission ordered in the matter, but I feel such negligence by the panel is unfortunate."

"What worries us is that even if we form the government by winning the elections, there are other ploys to topple us. The majority mark for Himachal is 35 seats but there is no guarantee that the winning MLAs won't be pressurised to switch sides through the use of central investigating agencies such as the ED (Enforcement Directorate) and the CBI. So, we request our high command to send observers here in anticipation of such ploys to topple our government. Though we have not seen anything like this in Himachal till date, one needs to be prepared," Singh added.

"Our promises are not 'jumlas'. We will mobilise the state's resources and will try to cut down on unnecessary expenditures. If elected, we will play a constructive role and work on taking forward my father, Virbhadra Singh's development model in the state," Vikramaditya said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)