Sudhir Sharma calls on Shanta Kumar

Palampur, March 31

Former Dharmsala MLA Sudhir Sharma, who had recently joined the BJP, today called on senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar at his residence. Sudhir Sharma was disqualified by the Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania after cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha election, in which the Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was defeated.

Addressing the media, Sudhir Sharma said he had come to meet the BJP veteran Shanta Kumar to seek his blessings. He said Shanta Kumar had hailed the decision of all six MLAs in electing Harsh Mahajan, the BJP candidate for Rajya Sabha.

While replying to a question, he said all the six Congress MLAs were compelled by the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to leave the Congress party. He said they were expecting that the Chief Minister would change his attitude and stop discriminating against the areas of development, but in the past one year, things had moved from bad to worse. He added that the allocation of funds for development works was deliberately stopped by the Chief Minister. Despite his repeated requests, the Chief Minister did not release Rs 30 crore, the state government’s share pertaining to the execution of the Central University project. He said because of the CM’s “negative” approach his constituency failed to get Rs 300 crore from the Central government.

He stated that the present crisis in the state Congress party was created by the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu. He should not blame the BJP as the CM had failed to keep his flock together in the past one year. He neglected the elected representatives and distributed Cabinet ranks to his henchmen.

He said his decision to join the BJP was in the interest of Dharamsala and he had already taken his workers in confidence before joining the BJP.

He claimed that the Sukhu government would not survive after the Lok Sabha elections as many Congress MLAs were in touch with the BJP and they would soon quit the party.