Shimla
Former Union Minister Sukh Ram, who recently joined BJP along with his son Anil Sharma, on Friday disclosed that the money recovered from his Mandi residence during a CBI raid, had been handed over to him by the then AICC treasurer Sitaram Kesari under a conspiracy hatched by Virbhadra Singh.
Under a bonafide belief I obliged him when he said it was being kept in your house for security reasons. Describing chief minister as a “despotic dictator” who could adopt any method to damage the reputation of his political rival, he said political history of Himachal Pradesh was a witness to it. He said he had taken an oath to end the “autocratic and dictatorial” rule of Virbhadra Singh.
Launching a scathing attack on Singh, his old time rival, Sukh Ram said the Congress Chief Minister thinks ‘Himachal is his jaagir (property).’ He said Singh had not left any stone unturned to harm his family.
The 92 year old politician, who is a popular leader from Mandi despite corruption tag, blamed Singh for conspiring against him in connivance with the then All India Congress Committee treasurer.
“Joining BJP at this stage was a painful decision for me. I had no option. But now that I have joined BJP, I will work for their victory on all the ten seats in Mandi district,” Sukh Ram said. He said Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh had forced his son, Anil Sharma to leave Congress and it happened after he (Sukh Ram) in an interview had mentioned that Anil Sharma was also capable of becoming a CM. “He kept the five other Congress leaders in campaign committee, but left my son deliberately,” he said.
Anil Sharma, who was Rural Development and Animal Husbandry minister in present Virbhadra government is the BJP nominee from Mandi Assembly segment this time.
Sukh Ram, who was instrumental in ousting Virbhadra from power in 1998 polls in a tight number game between by supporting BJP ( with five seats of his Himachal Vikas Congress) has always had a bitter equation with Singh even after he merged HVC Congress in 2004 Parliament polls.
Sukh Ram and Singh’s ‘political patch-ups’ have never lasted long.
The former Congress veteran shared that he could not attend Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi’s rally in his home town Mandi on 7 October.
“I had asked AICC General Secretary and party in-charge for HP, Sushil Kumar Shinde about it, but he said if I attend that rally, the Chief Minister has threatened to boycott it. So I did not go there,” he said.