After the high-voltage campaigning for the Tharali Assembly by- election ended on Saturday, the stage is now set for the polling on Monday. On the last day of the campaigning, the State top guns of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress went all-out to woo the voters. The by-poll is politically significant being the first one since the Trivendra Singh Rawat-helmed BJP Government assumed power following the saffron party’s landslide victory in 2017 Assembly election.
leading the campaign for the ruling BJP, the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat addressed three public meetings on the day. Addressing a well-attended meeting at Deval, the CM said that his Government is working on a roadmap for development of the border and the backward areas of the State. Stressing on the agenda of development pursued by his government since the day it assumed the reins of power of the Himalayan State, he said that the State Government has taken a string of measures and embarked on a slew of schemes to benefit different sections of the people like the farmers, the students and the women. launching a blistering attack on the opposition Congress for indulging in negative politics shorn as they are of a constructive approach vis-a-vis the problems plaguing the State , CM said that the people would show them the door. “Here in Tharali, the BJP candidate Munni Devi is getting tremendous support from the people because of the development projects undertaken by the state government,” he said.
He invoked ‘Aayushman Bharat Yojana’ under which every family living in the State would be brought under the free insurance cover worth Rs 5 lakh.
Among others who addressed the meeting were the State BJP president Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State for cooperatives and higher education Dhan Singh Rawat, MlA Ganesh Joshi and Shakti lal Shah besides the BJP candidate Munni Devi.
The Congress too went full throttle at striking a chord with the electorate on the final day of the campaigning as the former Chief Minister Harish Rawat led the show with the State Congress president Pritam Singh and State in charge of party Anugrah Narayan Singh in tow. Rawat also staged a road show on the day which covered many areas of the constituency. In his address, Rawat took a swipe at the BJP and its leaders for doing nothing for the people save vilifying the opposition. Exhorting the people to vote for Congress candidate Prof Jeet Ram, Rawat said that the battle in Tharali has boiled down to one between Dhan Bal ( power of money) and Jan Bal ( power of people). He said that in every electoral battle under participatory democracy, those representing the Jan Bal triumphs. “Here too there would be no exception,” he averred.
The State Congress president Pritam Singh, Kedarnath MlA Manoj Rawat and former MlA lalit Pharswan too addressed many public meetings in a bid to woo the voters for the Congress candidate.