As you enter Bilaspur town, a huge grey-coloured entrance to a mega hospital complex is being pitched as the BJP’s answer to the anti-incumbency claims of the opposition as the campaign for the November 12 Himachal Pradesh assembly elections starts to gather pace.
Built at a cost of Rs 1,470 crore, the AIIMS hospital was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently and is now being showcased as an example of “double-engine" growth by Bharatiya Janata Party candidates, not just in Bilaspur but adjoining Mandi town as well. The 750-bed hospital offers 18 speciality and 17 super-speciality departments and caters to the Mandi and adjoining regions that have lacked super-speciality hospitals in the past. People from the region had to travel all the way to Chandigarh for such a facility in the past.
“Good health facilities have remained a concern but the inauguration of AIIMS to a large extent will address a lot of concerns, especially for the people of lower Himachal," said Pawan Sharma, a resident of Mandi town. Sharma said that there were basic health facilities in the vicinity but a super speciality service was missing till now.
The BJP is banking not just on PM Modi’s charisma but the developmental work in Bilaspur and Mandi constituencies. While Bilaspur district comprises five assembly seats, Mandi district has 10. It’s these constituencies the BJP is targeting to showcase its developmental projects to take on the opposition onslaught over anti-incumbency.
“The place has been very rightly chosen geographically as it will cater to a larger section of the population not only of Bilaspur but also at Mandi," said BJP legislator Anil Sharma who is seeking reelection from the Mandi constituency.
Sharma is confident that the setting up of a huge medical infrastructure in the region will help the party electorally. “The AIIMS at Bilaspur exemplifies the double-engine growth that the Prime Minister is talking about," said the three-time MLA.
The candidates are also showcasing the work on other infrastructure projects in the region including the widening of the highways between Bilaspur and Lahaul Spiti. “It’s not just a boast by us but we have delivered. This region has been neglected by the Congress in the past and it’s the BJP government that has brought in so many projects for the region," said chief minister Jai Ram Thakur at rallies he held in his home district of Mandi.
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