Shimla, June 27 (IANS) Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday accused the Congress-led state government of undermining democracy by misusing the administrative machinery to manipulate the outcome of Panchayati Raj and urban local body elections.

He alleged that “after failing to prevent the elections, the state government is now deliberately delaying the election of Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons in an attempt to facilitate horse-trading and overturn the people’s mandate”.

Himachal Pradesh’s Leader of Opposition (LoP) Jai Ram Thakur said the state government initially made every possible effort to postpone the elections by invoking the Disaster Act, altering election rules and creating procedural hurdles.

“However, following the intervention of the High Court and ultimately the Supreme Court, the elections had to be conducted before the court-mandated deadline.”

Despite this, he alleged, the state government “is refusing to complete the democratic process by withholding the election schedule for key leadership posts in local bodies”.

Presenting what he described as evidence of the people’s mood, LoP Thakur told the media here that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-backed candidates won around 70 per cent of the panchayat Pradhan and up-Pradhan posts, reflecting widespread public dissatisfaction with the Congress government.

He also said the BJP also secured impressive victories in urban local body elections, including a clear majority in the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation, where the BJP won 11 of the 17 seats.

Highlighting the figures, BJP leader Thakur claimed that only three out of the 12 Zila Parishads have completed the election of Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons, and in all three places, while the Congress allegedly failed to even field candidates.

He said that only 47 out of the 92 Block Development Committees (BDCs) have completed elections for their leadership posts, with BJP-backed candidates winning 31 of them, while Congress secured 16.

He added that wherever the BJP “enjoys a majority, the state government is deliberately withholding election dates”.

The Leader of Opposition also accused the state government of intimidating BJP-backed elected representatives through vigilance inquiries, false cases, transfers of relatives, and administrative pressure to influence the democratic process.

LoP Thakur cited alleged irregularities in the election process at the Sujanpur Municipal Council and claimed that established voting procedures were ignored.

He announced that the BJP is preparing a list of officers who, according to the party, are acting under political pressure by delaying elections or targeting BJP-backed elected representatives through administrative action.

He warned that such actions would be legally challenged.

He alleged that the state government has crossed every democratic limit by refusing to accept the people’s mandate.

According to LoP Thakur, the results of the Panchayat and urban local body elections clearly indicated that the public confidence in the state government led by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has eroded significantly.

–IANS

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