Ever since the unfortunate and untimely death of Magan lal Shah, the first time MlA from Tharali due to Swine Flu in February this year, it was almost sure that BJP would field either his son or widow for Tharali by –election. The party in order to ride the sympathy wave finally decided to field Munni Devi from the seat ignoring claims of Balbir Ghuniyal, former MlA G l Shah and friend turned foe Guddu lal.
The political observers are of the opinion that given the public image of Congress candidate Proff Jeet Ram, it would be tough for Munni Devi to emulate the feat of her husband when he comfortably defeated Jeet Ram in assembly elections of 2017.
Guddu lal who joined the saffron outfit last week in the hope of getting party ticket and declared his exit once it became totally clear that Munni Devi would be party’s candidate, would surely affect the chances of BJP.
Guddu lal has already announced that he would contest the elections as independent candidate and Ghuniyal too is expected to follow suit. In the assembly elections Guddu lal garnered more than 7000 votes and what is worrying BJP is that most of his supporters are said to be the voters of the party.