Himachal Pradesh had progressed most when Prem Kumar Dhumal was its chief minister – PM Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the Congress has conceded defeat in Himachal Pradesh as its senior leaders have “run away” from campaigning in the state leaving Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to his fate.

Addressing a rally in the state’s largest district, Modi launched a blistering attack on the Congress over corruption, likening the party to termites, and exhorted the people to finish it off by handing over three-fourths majority to the BJP in the November 9 Assembly election.

Launching a scathing attack, he likened the party to termites, and said: “If you clean just on the surface, termites come back after a few days. The Congress party’s depraved mentality is like termites. You cannot just change the government and expect to be done with it, you have to take them out from the roots. Only then we can free Himachal of this disease.”

He went on to say that there shouldn’t be ‘one polling booth where these termites be allowed to thrive’, and said the that party leaders had run away from campaigning in the state leaving CM Virbhadra Singh to his fate.

In a reference to the Congress’ decision to mark the first anniversary of the demonetisation as black day, he said the opposition party would observe “blackmoney day” and burn his effigies as it was angry with his fight against corruption.

Modi claimed that the poor and the middle class were back to work but the dishonest people were angry with him and wanted to seek revenge from him as he forced them to deposit their bagfuls of cash with banks.

Seeking strong mandate in favour of the BJP, he said the state had progressed most when Prem Kumar Dhumal was its chief minister and Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister as the central government pumped in money which Dhumal used effectively for development of Himachal Pradesh.

Modi said he and Dhumal, who is the party’s chief ministerial candidate, would take the state to new heights of development, adding that its infrastructure and tourism sectors needed a boost.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also hinted at a crackdown on ‘benami’ properties, and said the Congress is worried as such assets of its leaders will not be spared in his government’s action.

Launching a stinging attack on the opposition party over corruption at an election rally in Sundernagar, Modi said the Congress’ campaign against demonetisation was driven by its attempts to mislead the people and create an atmosphere against him before he can raise a “storm” over benami assets.

“The time has come to return to the poor what had been robbed of them…. I am going to create a situation that they (Congress leaders) would not be able to reclaim their benami assets,” he said.

“I tried to get some information from Congress leaders… some (Congress leaders) lost their bags of Rs 500 notes, some of Rs 1000 notes. In the meantime, Modi has come with benami law. Their worry is that Modi will start showing results.

“Their worry is that the benami assets like land, flats, shops they have kept hidden like Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes are not going to be spared. Therefore, they are creating an atmosphere so that before Modi raises a storm over benami assets, they observe blackmoney day and mislead the people,” he said.

In a ‘benami’ property, the person who pays for it buys it in the name of some other person.

There would be many Congress leaders, the prime minister claimed, who would have purchased assets like cars and houses in the names of their drivers and cooks.

He would tell these people that they should not return them to these leaders if they are asked to transfer their ownership, Modi said.

“I am going to create a situation that they would not be able to reclaim it. This is people’s money. This has been robbed of the masses and would be used for their welfare,” he said.

People had given him power in 2014 to fight corruption and he would continue to do so, Modi said.

Mocking at the Congress’ campaign against demonetisation, he said that God gives at times the opposition party “wisdom” which comes to his use.

With inputs from agencies