Priyanka Gandhi on Friday asked the people of Himachal Pradesh to vote to secure a better future instead of getting misled by fake issues irrelevant to their core concerns.

Addressing a rally in Solan on the day the election date was announced for Himachal, Priyanka told a massive gathering: “Wake up and decide what is good for you. Start taking your own future seriously. Don’t fall for issues that are raised for electoral reasons. Vote on your core concerns like education, healthcare, jobs, business, safety… to ensure a better future for yourself.”

She asked the people to question every leader and seek accountability for their false promises.

“The BJP can make any promise but after the election, they work only to help their capitalist friends. The Congress's intention is noble and we fulfil promises. You can judge us by what we are doing in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. You must judge the BJP on the basis of their performance.”

Describing the plight of people in BJP-ruled Himachal, she said: “63,000 vacancies in government jobs were not filled by the BJP government. We will announce the process of one lakh jobs and the restoration of the old pension scheme after the first cabinet meeting. Industrialists are deciding on apple, tomato, and mushroom prices.

“We have seen Covid mismanagement and the PPE kit scam. There was a massive police recruitment scam. They destroyed the aspirations of youth by bringing the Agniveer scheme. The gas cylinder is costing Rs 1,000. You should consider all these while casting your vote.”

Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra, also said they will continue to ask questions central to people’s survival and the Prime Minister will have to answer.

He tweeted: “Why is inflation at a 35-year high? Why is unemployment at a 45-year high? Why are parathas being taxed at 18% GST? Why are farm tractors taxed at 12%GST?”

The Congress, which alleged that the elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh were delinked only to allow the Prime Minister to announce more schemes in his home state, declared that the BJP would be ousted from Himachal in a month.

Reacting to the Election Commission’s decision to announce the date of the election only for Himachal and not for Gujarat, Congress communication chief Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “Obviously this has been done to give more time to the Prime Minister to make some mega promises & carry out more inaugurations. Not at all surprising.”

The Congress, however, pointed to the fire engulfing the old secretariat in Gujarat, alleging that the BJP was destroying files in the fear of losing power in the state.

It also asked the BJP to take out a “Repentance Yatra” in place of the “Gaurav Yatra” as it has done nothing in terms of good governance. The party gave details of paper leaks in Gujarat over the past few years, arguing that the BJP government was playing havoc with the student's future.

Party spokesperson Pawan Khera said in a statement, “What is the reason examination papers are being customarily leaked in all BJP-ruled states? Gujarat has crossed all the limits, turning the paper leaks into a huge scam. In October only, BBA and BCom papers got leaked at Saurashtra University. In April, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, B.com, and BA papers got leaked. In Bhavnagar, even school examination papers were leaked.” He gave dozens more examples of paper leaks.