Though his followers are sounding sure of the MlA retaining the seat, this time around the road ahead is not easy
Cradled in the scenic, serene mountains, the sleepy Mussoorie is now abuzz with political excitement with sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MlA Ganesh Joshi fighting his electoral battle against a formidable Gorkha contender Godavari Thapli fighting on Congress ticket.
The constituency returned the Congress candidates in two consecutive elections in 2002 and 2007 before the party conceded defeat at the hands of Joshi in the 2012 election. Significantly, with voters of 1, 28, 189 — 67,658 males and 60,528 females — it is home to around 30,000 Gorkha community people — fourth of the electorate, a factor that has made the return of Joshi a bit uncertain.
Thapli fought the 2012 election as an Independent and secured 9,248 votes, a figure that is perceived to have helped Joshi sail through. The hat-trick bid of Jot Singh Gunsola, the two-time winner from Congress, was thwarted with the popularity of Thapli among the Gorkha voters coming in the way.
Joshi who was elected from Rajpur Road constituency in 2007 election came to Mussoorie in 2012 after the former was made a reserved seat for the Scheduled Caste. Joshi defeated Gunsola by around 9776 votes with Joshi scoring 28,097 votes and Gunsola, 18,321 votes.
In the 2002 election of the State, Gunsola faced Narayan Singh of the BJP. He won by over 6,343 votes. Things repeated in 2007 election too though the margin of victory narrowed down to 1,048 votes. That time, BJP fielded Sahdev Singh Pundir against Gunsola.
Joshi, though still a formidable candidate with his connect with the people remaining strong, courted a fierce controversy over his alleged role in beating a State police horse Shaktimaan during a BJP rally in Dehradun in March last year.
Injured in one of its hind limbs with alleged lathi blows, the equine died a few days later. Though his followers are sounding sure of the MlA remaining on the winning streak this time too there is little doubt that the road ahead for him is not easy with the Congress intelligently picking up a popular leader among the numerically strong Gorkha community to take him head-on.