In a setback to ruling BJP ahead of the crucial urban local body (ULB) elections, the Congress-supported candidate has wrested the prestigious post of the Chamoli district panchayat president from it. In the election, the independent candidate Ramvati Devi secured 13 votes while the BJP candidate Bhagirathi Kunjwal managed just 11 votes. While the Chamoli district Panchayat has 27 members one of them abstained from voting while two votes were rejected.
Enthused by the victory of the Congress-backed candidate, the State Congress chief Pritam Singh said that the party, committed to strengthening Panchayati Raj institutions, would continue to strive so in the future too.
Congratulating Ramvati Devi on her victory, Singh said that the election of the Chamoli district Panchayat has revealed the confidence the people have in his party’s developmental agenda as contrasted with the pompous promises and zero deliverance of the ruling BJP. “More poll debacles are awaiting the saffron party,” he said and added that the same triumphant trend for his party would show up during the upcoming ULB polls.
The by-election for the coveted post of the three-tier Panchayati raj system was necessitated by the resignation of Munni Devi Shah following her election as an MLA. Shah had been elected as the president of Chamoli district Panchayat in 2013.
She had contested the Assembly by- poll from Tharali constituency earlier this year after her husband Magan Lal Shah who had been the MLA from the same had died of dengue in January this year. She had defeated Congress’ Jeet Ram whom her husband had also defeated during the 2017 Assembly election.
Importantly, following her election as MLA, Munni Devi had initially refused to resign from the post of the district Panchayat president.
Her efforts to cling to the post had delayed her taking the oath as the MLA. However, the vice- president of the district Panchayat, Lakhpat Butola moving the Uttarakhand High Court, demanding her to quit one of the posts she was holding, had forced her to quit the post of the rural body president.
Rift proved costly for BJP
PNS n Dehradun
The rift between Tharali MLA Munni Devi and Badrinath MLA Mahendra Bhatt has proved costly for the BJP in the election for the post of the president of district Panchayat Chamoli. Embroiled as it was in the festering Umesh Sharma sting episode and sensational sexual harassment accusation involving its general secretary (organisation), the State BJP brass had wakened up too late on the crucial rural body by-election.
It is learnt that two days before the election, Munni Devi had reportedly told the party leaders that Mahendra Bhatt who was calling the shots should take the responsibility of the result of the by-poll, making it clear that the party was staring at a debacle.
Realising the gravity of things, the State BJP president Ajay Bhatt had rushed to Chamoli on Sunday on a damage control mission.
But it proved too little too late and the Congress-backed candidate humbled the saffron party nominee, sounding warning bells for BJP, now facing the tough ULB challenge and then the high-stake Lok Sabha poll.