Congress main rival in polls

THE HIMACHAL PRADESH assembly elections, scheduled to be held in November, are likely to witness a triangular contest, a first for the state.

- PRATUL SHARMA

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party are making massive efforts to unseat the BJP. With just four months to go, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur is busy touring the state to hard sell his government’s achievements. THE WEEK caught up with Thakur while he was in Delhi to attend the recent NITI Aayog meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Excerpts from an interview:

Q/As chief minister, what has been your biggest challenge and achievement?

A/The biggest challenge has been Covid-19, which impacted the economy, and [during which the] working period was curtailed. The speed of the targeted projects was disturbed a bit. [But] despite Covid-19, we handled the economy very well; we were the first state to administer the first and the second dose [of the vaccine]. We have been successful to a great extent in completing all the new initiatives we started, and have achieved the target of bringing in private sector investment.

Q/India is celebrating 75 years of independence. What does this mean for Himachal Pradesh?

A/We celebrated 50 years of statehood last year. Now, we will celebrate 75 years of organisation. (In April 1948, the chief commissioner’s province of Himachal Pradesh came into being.) We have planned 75 events in all 68 assembly constituencies, wherein we will talk about Himachal’s journey... especially [to] the younger generation. At that time, the literacy rate was a mere 4.2 per cent; it is now 83 per cent. There were only 228km of roads; now it is more than 39,500km. For all this, the credit goes to the people of the state and not to any leader.