Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Munni Devi Shah won the prestigious Tharali assembly by- election by defeating the Congress candidate Jeet Ram by a margin of 1981 votes. She cornered 25737 votes against 23756 received by Congress candidate.
The victory of Munni Devi has ensured that the strength of the BJP in the 70 member assembly is again 57. The by- election was necessitated due to the death of BJP MlA Magan lal Shah due to swine flu in February this year. To corner the sympathy votes the BJP, betted on Munni Devi, the widow of Magan lal Shah. She won the election albeit by a reduced margin. Apart from Munni Devi and Jeet Ram all other candidates who were in the fray for the Tharali by-election, lost their security deposit. Kasbi lal of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) was distant third by getting 1365 votes while Kunwar Ram of Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM) got 1034 votes. Independent Beeri Ram got 587 votes and 705 voters opted for NOTA button on the EVM. Munni Devi forged ahead into a lead of 339 votes in the first round which she increased in subsequent rounds. From the eighth round the congress candidate started decreasing the lead but in later rounds Munni Devi again started increasing the margin and finally romped home. The BJP candidate also got a lion’s share in the postal ballots as she cornered 120 votes while the Congress candidate could manage only 26 postal votes.
The counting started at Kulsari government Inter College at 8 am on the day. The administration had deployed 49 employees for the counting of votes. A total of 12 tables were set up for the counting. The election commission had appointed one micro observer on each table. Counting was held in 15 rounds.
Shortly after receiving the certificate of victory, Munni Devi thanked the party workers and people of the constituency for her victory.
She said that triumph is a victory of policies of Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, party organization of BJP and workers. Munni also said that she would do every possible effort to fulfill the dreams of late Magan lal Shah and aspirations of the people.