Ashish not a public servant, he took contracts worth Rs 135 crore: Himachal CM

Hamirpur (HP), July 2 (PTI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu alleged on Tuesday that Ashish Sharma, the former MLA from Hamirpur assembly seat and now a BJP candidate, is a contractor and not a public servant.

The chief minister said this is the first case in the country and the state when Independent candidates resigned from the post of MLA and decided to contest the election again on the ticket of another political party.

Sharma is one of the three Independent candidates who resigned from the assembly to contest as BJP candidates in the bypolls. The other two candidates are contesting from Dehra and Nalagarh seats.

"Ashish did work worth Rs 50 crore in the previous BJP government, while he took contracts worth Rs 135 crore in the 14 months of the Congress government," Sukhu said, while addressing several public gatherings in Hamirpur on Tuesday.

The chief minister further alleged that Sharma, as an MLA, on the one side kept asking for tenders from him but on the other side he told the people that the chief minister is not working.

"The former Independent MLA is a greedy and arrogant person. His intentions are bad and that's why he sold himself in the political mandi (market) of the BJP," Sukhu alleged.

Seeking votes for Congress candidate from Hamirpur assembly constituency Pushpinder Verma, Sukhu said, "The former MLA of Hamirpur was conspiring to topple the government since July last year. We have evidence of this. A case has been registered against him and investigations are underway." The chief minister alleged that Sharma is running two crushers under one name and he has nothing to do with the works of the public.

"He kept roaming around with files of setting up crushers and taking tenders. He did not find time to come to me with files of public works," said Sukhu.

He said the foundation stone of Hamirpur bus stand was laid during the tenure of former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal but not even a single brick was laid during the tenure of BJP's Jai Ram Thakur as chief minister.

"The Congress high command made me the chief minister from lower Himachal, that too from Hamirpur, for the first time in 75 years. But the three former MLAs of the district, greedy for power, did not like this," he said. PTI COR BPL KSS KSS