Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday blamed the Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government in Himachal Pradesh for not providing security to women in the State.
He was responding to slogans raised on the recent rape and murder of a schoolgirl, during a rally in the Arki Assembly constituency, where the Chief Minister is contesting the November 9 Assembly elections.
The crime graph in the small hill State has increased in the past few years, Mr. Rajnath said.
He also reminded the residents of the Arki constituency that Mr. Singh had slighted them in one of the recent local fairs (Sair ka Mela) and had pledged not to come back ever to the place.
Dig at Virbhadra
“But once gone, you should not have come back, Mr. Singh,” Mr. Rajnath ridiculed the octogenarian Chief Minister, who is known for showing his anger in public.
After winning the 2012 Assembly elections under Mr. Singh, the Congress lost all four Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and lagged behind in almost 60 Assembly segments, Mr. Rajnath said.
But the Chief Minister had done nothing in the State to improve matters or ensure the security of women. Instead, he patronised the corrupt and remained busy in sorting out his own corruption cases, he added.
Mr. Rajnath Singh addressed three meetings in the State.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and Union Ministers Jagat Prakash Nadda and Smriti Irani also addressed a score of rallies, and blamed the Chief Minister for remaining busy with his own corruption cases.
He had failed even to prepare DPRs (detailed project reports) for receiving grants for various development projects, the BJP leaders alleged.
Attacking the Chief Minister, all of them said he would remain on a prolonged bail now.
