TDG Reporter: Anurag Ji, some of your videos are going viral on the internet where you are seen getting out of your car and pushing a bus that had stopped. There are also videos of you playing with the kids. Are using your personal charm and people connect to bring back the BJP in Himachal Pradesh?
Anurag Thakur: All this is never done for votes. This is all natural. If you accompany me for some meetings you will see the kids come and greet you, the elderly will bless you, the youth will raise you on their shoulders. I have never treated my parliamentary area as a political field. It is like a family to me and maybe that’s all that I have earned here. When I was representative of the Yuva Morcha, even then I used to travel a lot. The other party workers here told me that you must leave, the party has given you huge responsibilities. You do your part for the country, we will take care of work here. But I have fought four elections. All my party workers put up a great fight for me. The public makes me victorious. That is their blessing for me.
As far as meeting the people and getting clicked with them and all is concerned, I feel it’s just a memory we both store in our hearts. We all feel nice about it.
TDG Reporter: Last time the public of Hamirpur made you victorious by a great margin, but if we talk about this election, there is a rebel factor. If I talk about Mandi, or Kullu, or Bilaspur, they all had rebels standing against you. So don’t you think maybe your party has underestimated the power of these rebels who are standing over more than 15 of your seats. Because generally Himachal Pradesh has a history of government changing every 5 years. And this time, since so many rebels have come up, do you fear that this can throw a detrimental obstruction against all the efforts of the party, JP Nadda ji, the PM and yourself ?
Anurag Thakur: No one wants that any of their party workers stand up against them and rebel. We have all tried to avoid this situation. Some were pacified too. But when one starts to feel that their party is coming into power and they start developing bigger ambitions, and you want the ticket, we tried to address everyone, but not everyone will understand. Of course this will lead to some damage, but, overall all the good work we have done in the Pradesh, all the efforts put up by Jayram Ji will definitely benefit us.
Q. So are you saying that you are confident you will be back in power? I am asking because Congress has already made so many promises. They are saying they will give monetary benefits to women, they will bring back the old pension scheme. And I have been constantly noticing that you, in all your speeches, have been using the word “Jhasa” word and asking people not to fall for false promises. Which point are you exactly referring to?
A. In 2003, the Congress party had promised the public of Himachal that one person from every house hold will get employment. They remained in power for 5 years but did not fulfil anything, the people hence voted them out. They again brought out new reforms in 2012, remained in power for next 5 years and yet again did nothing. Similarly Congress got so many forms filled by farmers in Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan promising that they will forgo their debts but they ultimately did not. So people don’t trust them anymore. The Congress only accumulates votes, and then once in power, accumulates notes (currency) and forgets about all the promises made. Nowhere did we say that we will provide 125 unit electricity free of cost, free water and that we will not give any bills for these , or that we will provide women above the age of 60 years with a pension, but we actually did this. Along with this, we were no 1 in vaccination.
Then when the Centre brought the Ujwala Yojna, we introduced the Mukhyamantri Grahan Yojna implemented by Jayram Ji in the Pradesh. We provided all the women with gas cylinders and stoves for cooking. When the Centre brought the Ayushman Bharat Yojna, Jayram Ji’s government brought the HIMCARE Yojna. So our government tried its best to provide benefits t almost everybody in the Pradesh, and hence there had been a lot of improvement in basic necessities like roads, water, electricity etc.