Virbhadra to be Cong’s ‘star campaigner’ in Himachal; CM question remains open

To a specific question of mediapersons Birender Singh said,“Who else other than Virbhadra Singh,a five-time Chief Minister and now a Union minister,could be a better star campaigner in the elections?” He,however,hastened to add,“Congress has no precedent of naming CMs before elections. It’s up to the MLAs,elected to the next House,to select their leader in consultations with the party high command”.

Today’s Congress convention,which is the first to be held in the BJP strong-hold of Kangra-belt,also finalised a “road-map” for the party’s struggle in the run-up to the Assembly elections and adopted five resolutions,including a political resolution to defeat the BJP in the next election by mass mobilisation campaign against the government.

“We are all set to fight the BJP on issues of corruption,illegal land sales to outsiders,one of these also involving Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev in Solan district”,said Birender Singh at a press conference.

He named four leaders viz Virbhadra Singh ,Vidya Stokes,Kaul Singh Thakur and veteran Congress leader Sat Mahajan to hold press conferences at Mandi,Hamirpur,Shimla and Dharamshala respectively to expose the misdeeds of the BJP government,including diversion of prime land to Baba Ramdev.

Singh also declared that Solan–a district where major land deals have happened,will be nucleus of the Congress battle against BJP. “There we have planned a major rally at Baddi – the state’s prime industrial belt – on June 26,” he said.

Before the Congress’ Palampur convention,it was former Minister GS Bali,who went all out to roll out a red carpet welcome for Birender Singh on his visit to Kangra,engaging a long convoy of vehicles from the local airport to Kangra town.