'Congress can't pay salaries in Himachal': PM Modi cautions Haryana voters, blasts 'Delhi's royal family'

As the assembly election nears in Haryana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has intensified his attack on Congress and asked the voters to learn from Himachal Pradesh, which is being ruled by the grand old party. Himachal is facing a financial crisis and the saffron party has alleged that the Congress party's promises have punched a big hole in the state's finances, prompting the state to delay salaries of government employees and pensioners.  

On Saturday, while addressing a rally in Hisar, the prime minister said that in Himachal Pradesh, the Congress is escaping from promises they made to people. People are now telling Congress "Kya Hua Tera Vada". Congress is asking people, "tum kaun". "Delhi's royal family trapped people of Himachal in their lies. Today, they don't have the budget to pay salaries and DA to employees in Himachal," the prime minister said attacking the Gandhi family. 

Last month, the Himachal government delayed August salary by a week - a first in the state's history. Former Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur said that the state would soon be too debt-wrecked to pay the salaries of its employees. His attack came days after Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said the government would be deferring the salaries of ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries, and chairpersons and vice chairpersons of boards and corporations for two months.

The prime minister also flagged infighting within the Congress and jostling for the chief minister's post. He said stability is a far-fetched thing for the Congress because of its infighting and now everyone in the party is jostling among themselves to become chief minister in Haryana with "Bapu" (Bhupinder Singh Hooda) and "Beta" (Deepender Hooda) also the contenders. 

"The party which cannot bring unity among its leaders, how will they bring stability in a state. You are seeing how in Congress here (in Haryana), they are jostling among themselves to become chief minister, he said. "Bapu (Bhupinder Hooda) is also a contender and Beta (Deepender) is also a contender. And together both are engaged in settling the others. And seeing all this, aware voters of Haryana are settling the Congress," he said. 

Modi also blasted Congress for allegedly ignoring Dalits. Congress knows that Dalits don't give them votes, therefore they hate the entire Dalit community, he alleged. Modi said during the previous Hooda regime, atrocities on Dalits took place in Gohana, Mirchpur incident took place, there were atrocities and injustice with Dalit daughters, but Congress remained silent, he said in the presence of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Union minister M L Khattar, Kiran Choudhry, Kuldeep Bishnoi, and other BJP leaders. 

Haryana will go to polls on October 5. 

(With inputs from PTI)