Amid speculations and AAP leaders’ claim on change of Chief Minister in Himachal Pradesh ahead of assembly polls, BJP national chief J P Nadda on Sunday made it clear that the BJP will contest elections under Jai Ram Thakur’s leadership.

Addressing media in Shimla, Nadda said there is no possibility of any change in CM face in Himachal as there is good coordination between the organisation and the government.

The party will contest elections under the leadership of Thakur, he said, adding there is also no plan to make any changes in the Cabinet.

Replying to a query on ticket allotment to sitting MLAs, he stated that the party always makes changes in assembly polls as was the case in the recent polls in five states of the country where 10 per cent of the MLAs were denied tickets.

He also lashed at the Congress party over the neglect of the state during the governments at Centre and said the previous UPA government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had withdrawn the special category status to the state.

Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had granted the status keeping in mind the tough geographical conditions of the state for 10 years but it was withdrawn by Congress government in 8 years.

But BJP governments didn’t work with a biased attitude and the status which provides for 90:10 ratio funding was reinstated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after coming into power in 2014 when ex-CM Virbhadra Singh government was running the state.

Same was the case with Atal Tunnel Rohtang whose foundation was laid by Vajpayee in 2002 but the construction continues to hang fire in Congress rule. But it was under PM Modi’s government that the construction work was carried out on war footing and was completed in 2020. The Congress party only believes in politicising issues and does nothing to resolve them, the BJP national chief said.

He stated that the BJP will work in mission to repeat the government in Himachal and several outreach programmes are planned by the party which includes meetings of workers till booth level.

“I will also visit AIIMS at Bilaspur during my visit to the district to review its functioning and construction. We will make efforts to get the AIIMS inaugurated by PM Modi in the month of June,” he added.

Replying to a query on price rise, Nadda said the situation will improve in coming months as the country’s economy is on the path of recovery with growth rate pegged  at around 9.5 per cent.

Commenting on implementation of the Old Pension scheme, he added that all aspects needed to be taken care of and examined before taking any decision on the issue.