Says former CM too busy attacking own party leaders to focus on state issues
Munish Sood
MANDI:
Congress leader and PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh on Wednesday took a dig at Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, saying the former Chief Minister seemed “too busy targeting his own party leaders” to pay attention to state issues.
Addressing reporters in Shimla, Vikramaditya was asked to respond to Jai Ram Thakur’s recent criticism of the PWD department, where the latter alleged that “road debris lied unattended for days and workers spent only two hours working while machines remained idle the rest of the day”.
Instead of directly replying to the charges, Vikramaditya retorted, “The Leader of Opposition these days is occupied in criticising his own party colleagues — Anurag Thakur and Kangana Ranaut. He’s spending all his time attacking them, so perhaps he should answer his own questions first.”
Asked about Jai Ram Thakur’s demand for a probe against officials and leaders over alleged lapses during disaster management, Vikramaditya quipped, “Then let him be appointed the Chief Justice himself — he seems eager to send everyone to jail.”
Jai Ram’s remarks stir BJP circles
Vikramaditya’s jibe comes a day after Jai Ram Thakur, while speaking at a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) felicitation function in Mandi, made indirect but pointed remarks, seen as an attack on former Union Minister and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur.
Without naming him directly, Jai Ram had said, “A leader’s stature should translate into results that benefit the party. But in the last Assembly elections, the presence of big names did not help the BJP in any meaningful way.”
He further remarked that had “influential leaders delivered in their regions, the BJP would have been in power today.”
Factional rift deepens
Political observers say Jai Ram Thakur’s statement — interpreted as a clear reference to Anurag Thakur’s home district Hamirpur, where the BJP drew a blank in the 2022 Assembly polls — has widened the visible rift within the party. The BJP won just 25 of 68 Assembly seats, nine of them from Mandi district alone.
The latest exchange has also revived talk of old factional fault lines within the state BJP, particularly between the Jai Ram and Dhumal-Anurag camps.
Congress leaders were quick to capitalise on the internal discord. Vikramaditya’s pointed remarks reflect how the opposition is using Jai Ram’s own statements to portray the BJP as a “divided house” ahead of the coming civic and parliamentary elections.
