Shimla, Aug. 2 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday accused Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress government of large-scale phone tapping and illegal surveillance on opposition leaders, as well as its own ministers, as part of "vendetta politics."

However, the Congress termed the allegations "baseless" and called it their "fragments of imagination".

Leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur alleged that police and vigilance machinery have been diverted from law enforcement to monitor political rivals.

"Phones of opposition leaders and their personal security officers are being tapped. Senior officers are engaged in political espionage late into the night while serious crimes rise across the state," Thakur alleged....