Hamirpur (HP), Jul 3 (PTI) BJP leaders in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday demanded Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu apologise to the party's Hamirpur assembly bypoll candidate Ashish Sharma for making "false allegations" against him.

Sukhu, while addressing a public gathering here on Tuesday, accused Sharma of conspiring to topple the Congress government in the state and said he was a "greedy and arrogant" person who only worked to secure contracts worth crores of rupees.

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The chief minister is the "biggest contractor of lies and his actions won't help the Congress win the bypolls to three assembly seats in the state", BJP leader Trilok Jamwal said in a statement issued here.

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Bypolls for the Dehra, Hamirpur and the Nalagargh seats is scheduled for July 10 and was necessitated after three Independent MLAs, including Sharma, who voted in favour of the BJP in the February Rajya Sabha elections, resigned from the assembly and joined the party.

"Sensing his party's defeat in all the three seats, including Hamirpur, the home district of the chief minister, Sukhu is making false allegations and accusations against BJP candidates," Jamwal, who is the Bilaspur (Sadar) MLA and the BJP co-incharge for the Hamirpur bypoll, said.

The BJP has fielded all the three former MLAs -- Sharma, KL Thakur and Hoshiyar Singh -- from their respective seats Hamirpur, Nalagarh and Dehra.

"If Sukhu says that during the Congress' tenure, Sharma took contracts worth crores from him, then should it be understood that contracts are distributed in the CM's office? Is there any flaw in the open tendering system of this government or the CM has no option left except lying at the time of elections?" Jamwal asked.

On Tuesday, Sukhu said," Sharma 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."

"He 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 had alleged.

Jamwal said before raising questions on the means of livelihood of the BJP candidate, the chief minister should have thought a little but the irony is that he has lost so much patience that he is not able to weigh his own statements properly.

He said it is very important for a chief minister to maintain the dignity of the election process but he is making baseless statements. It is clear from this that the Sukhu has accepted his defeat even before the elections, the BJP leader added.

BJP MLA from Shri Nainadevi Randhir Sharma in a statement asked the chief minister to give proof of all the allegations levelled by him against BJP candidate Ashish Sharma or apologise for misleading the people of Hamirpur.

He alleged that Sukhu was trying to confuse the people by making "false statements". "The chief minister has no facts to support his allegations, which proves that this is just a political stunt," the MLA added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)