Shimla, Aug. 2 -- A day after the cash-strapped Himachal Pradesh government approved revival of the state-run lotteries to boost revenue, a war of words began between Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Protesting against the same, the BJP announced a major protest in Mandi on August 6 demanding immediate withdrawal of the lottery system while Congress defended the revival of the state lottery. The state cabinet on Thursday gave its nod to initiate the operation of lotteries in the state that has been banned since 1999. Launching a scathing attack at the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led government in state, BJP state president Dr Rajeev Bindal said, "The Sukhu government promised one lakh government jobs in its very first Cabinet meeting. Now, three years later, they have launched a lottery system and are asking the youth to buy tickets to change their fate. This is not governance-it's exploitation." Slamming the Congress, Bindal said, "The Cabinet's decision to reintroduce the lottery system is a mockery of the unemployed. Instead of generating employment opportunities, the government is pushing youth towards gambling and false hope." Calling lottery system "anti-people", Bindal questioned the government's rationale behind reviving the lottery, which was previously banned in 1999-2000 by the BJP-led government under Prem Kumar Dhumal, restarted by the Congress in 2004, and again banned in 2007. Now, in 2025, the Congress has once again decided to reintroduce it. Reeling under debt of more than Rs.1 lakh crore, the state government is looking for measures to generate revenue and thus the cabinet has approved revival of state lottery. The finance department made a detailed presentation before the cabinet on the issue of starting operation of lotteries in the hill state to generate additional revenue. The decision has been taken on the recommendation of the Resource Mobilisation Committee, headed by deputy chief minister Mukesh Agnihotri. Defending the state's decision of reviving the state lottery, technical education minister Rajesh Dharmani said, "The Union government has no control over online and offline betting and people are losing their hard-earned money in this". He added, "On the contrary, the lottery being started by the state government will be under a legitimate process, which will generate revenue for the state"....