Sensing that the women electorate and the government employees play an important role in every election in Himachal Pradesh, the ruling Congress has taken up their concerns as main poll issues in the run-up to the Lok Sabha and Assembly by-elections on June 1.
The women voters comprise nearly 49 % of the total 56.2 lakh electors in Himachal Pradesh, while the strength of government employees is over 3 lakh in the state.
The Congress party is quite actively taking the guarantee of Rs 1500 per month to women above the age of 18 years, which Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu launched from Lahaul Spiti in the last week of February and then extended to other parts just before the polls were announced, to the electoral battlefield.
Around five lakh women aged between 18-60 years in the state would be benefitted from this scheme on which the government will spend Rs 800 crore in a year.
The BJP, which was earlier criticizing the Congress party over non-fulfilment of the Congress poll guarantee of about Rs 1500 per month to women in HP, got a bit anxious when the government announced this Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojana and started working out the modalities.
So much so that the opposition BJP went and represented to the Election Commission to stall the benefits being extended to the women in poll hour, a message that has not gone in favour of BJP amid the poll campaign, with the Congress party taking it to the masses that BJP doesn’t want the women to get this benefit.
Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for government employees is another issue, on which the ruling Congress can very well take credit in election hours, especially as the number of government employees in the state is fairly. Immediately after joining office, the Congress government reverted to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), benefitting around 1.40 lakh employees in the state, who were covered under NPS after 2004, which involved negligible pension.
OPS had become a major issue in the 2022 Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh as the Congress party was quick to pick it, immediately after the then BJP Chief Minister had almost ridiculed employees on their demand- while mentioning that if the employees want OPS, they should leave the job and fight the elections.
The BJP had to pay the price of this statement in the 2022 Assembly by-polls. The issue has resurfaced now to embarrass BJP again in the six by-polls, with Chief Minister Sukhu having implemented OPS after the first cabinet meeting of the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh despite several financial hurdles at the level of Central government. Now there is a lurking fear among the employees that if the BJP becomes powerful in the state again, it may revert to NPS, like other BJP-ruled states.
“Congress certainly has an edge when it comes to implementation of the OPS and the benefit of Rs 1500 per month to women as per its poll guarantee. The BJP is opposed to the benefit to the employees and the women as well and the opposition party is not able to justify its stand on the two issues,” said Principal Media Advisor to the Chief Minister, Naresh Chauhan.
The BJP, on the other hand, is quiet on the OPS and says in 14 months of Congress rule, no woman got the benefit which they promised in the 2022 polls. “The Congress talked of creating one lakh jobs in the first cabinet. Where are those jobs? They said they will give free power up to 300 units. Is it being given? The Congress had cheated the people of the state by making false promises in 2022, but it can’t do the same all the time. Congress party is now badly exposed before the people of Himachal, who have now made up their mind to elect BJP on all four Lok Sabha seats and six Assembly seats,” said BJP spokesman and MLA from Chopal, Balbir Verma.
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