"Jai Ram Thakur Making Baseless Statement Because...": Himachal Congress

Himachal Pradesh Congress on Wednesday attacked former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur for accusing the new government of vendetta politics by scrapping old projects, saying he is merely currying favour with his top bosses in Delhi.

Congress MLAs Rajesh Dharmani, Sanjay Rattan, and Sunder Singh Thakur in a joint statement said the former Chief Minister was in a hurry to please the leadership in New Delhi and that's why he is making such "baseless statements."

The MLAs said that the Congress has been given a massive mandate by the people to govern the state for five years and the party is committed to fulfil all ten guarantees it offered in its manifesto.

Advising Mr Thakur to have patience, they said that the Congress government has just taken over the reins of the state but will soon come into action.

The lawmakers alleged that the previous dispensation to lure people ahead of the assembly election opened several institutions without any thought to budget provisions.

Not even a single institution was opened or upgraded on public demand, they said in the statement.

The MLAs said that the state government has decided to wind up many such institutions and will review the rest for viability and other considerations.

They also said that when BJP came to power in the state last time almost all "development oriented decisions" of the previous Congress government were scrapped .

It's the BJP government that always resorted to politics of vendetta, they said. Meanwhile, BJP state chief Suresh Kashyap said that de-notifying 32 newly-opened electricity offices by the state government shows that the Congress is working with a feeling of revenge.

The state BJP has decided to submit a memorandum to the Governor through SDMs from all divisions and subdivisions where the offices have been closed, he added.

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