With the BJP set to wrest power from the Congress in Himachal Pradesh, party leader Anurag Thakur today said the people of the state wanted change because of a bad law-and-order situation and "misgovernance".


Thakur said that the announcement of Prem Kumar Dhumal as the BJP's chief ministerial candidate ahead of the election also helped the voters turn in favour of the saffron party.


However, Dhumal was defeated from the Sujanpur Assembly seat. "People wanted a change in Himachal Pradesh because the law-and-order situation was bad and also, there was misgovernance. The Congress was involved in corruption," he alleged.


Thakur, who is Dhumal's son, claimed that Himachal Pradesh had progressed well under the BJP governments in the past. "If you compare the two governments -- that of the Congress and of the BJP under the leadership of Dhumalji -- I think, there is a clear demarcation," he said.


The announcement of the BJP's chief ministerial candidate ahead of the polls worked in favour of the party, he said, adding that Himachal Pradesh was a small state and the people wanted to know who their leader would be if they needed to replace Congress Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.


"That (naming the chief ministerial candidate) helped. You could see the change after the announcement," he said. Thakur is a Lok Sabha MP from the Hamirpur constituency in Himachal Pradesh. -- PTI