SHIMLA: Amid all the controversy surrounding it now Smart City has become a political football in Himachal Pradesh. Congress is accusing BJP and CPM for the exclusion of Dharamshala from the list and has decided to make it an issue in the local bodies' elections especially in Kangra district. Seeing BJP leaders attacking Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma, Congress leaders from Kangra has accused BJP of pursuing regional politics. 

When Dharamshala was included in the list of Smart City last year, BJP leaders from Shimla in September last year had submitted a memorandum to Governor Acharya Devvrat demanding CBI probe to know how Dharamshala was declared smart city. BJP had alleged that state government had resorted to fudging in documents to ensure and encourage nepotism, regionalism and personal aggrandizement. It had also questioned the scores given to Dharamshala Municipal Council (now corporation). 

Not happy with the exclusion of Shimla, CPM leader and Shimla mayor Sanjay Chauhan had even filed a petition challenging the exclusion of Shimla from smart city list claiming that Dharamshala was included for ulterior motives and political considerations. 

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CPM leaders in the letter said that High Court has scrapped Dharamshala from the smart city list and a fresh exercise has been asked to be undertaken for stage 1 of the smart cities owning to large scale fudging of data by one of the towns and further being recommended by the state government. 

"0nce again we from Himachal will be forced to nominate just one city according to the points that they generate in 15 categories as mentioned in the guidelines for smart cities. Our request to you and other MPs from Himachal is that you must use your office and ensure that another city is added to the list of smart cities from Himachal, so that instead of one we have two smart cities from the state," they added.