Cong MLA Jeet Ram to take on BJP’s Magan Lal again
Neena Sharma
Tribune News Service
Dehradun, February 9
Congress candidate Jeet Ram managed to win the Tharali Assembly (reserved) seat in Chamoli district for the first time in the 2012 elections. The Congress has again given ticket to Jeet Ram while the BJP has fielded Magan Lal Shah for the second consecutive time.
Primarily the constituency has been witness to a two-horse race between the Congress and the BJP.
The Tharali (SC) seat came into existence after the delimitation of Assembly constituencies in 2008.
Earlier the Tharali block was part of the Pindar (SC) Assembly segment. After reorganisation of Pindar, Tharali was made an Assembly constituency in 2012.
The Pindar is a river that has several village settlements such as Karanprayag and Deval along its banks.
Besides the famed Bedni Bugyal and the Mritunjay temple, several villages are popular for sending youths to the Indian Army. Naik Darwan Singh Negi, the recipient of Victoria Cross that was given to soldiers of the Commonwealth, hailed from Kafartee village that is also part of the Tharali constituency. The remote village, Van, near the Tibet border, also falls in the constituency.
BJP candidate BL Shah had emerged victorious from Pindar in the 2002 and 2007 elections. In the 2012 elections, the BJP denied him ticket and he rebelled against the party. This worked in the favour of Congress candidate Jeet Ram, who emerged the winner. Jeet Ram secured 17,404 votes while Magan Lal got 16,731 votes.
This time around, the BJP has it easy, as it managed to douse the fire of rebellion before the filling of nomination papers. The RSS has an active presence here and most of the BJP leaders in Tharali have come through the Sangh route.
Jeet Ram is a professor in Kumaun University, Nainital. A quite man, he is said to have bagged the Congress ticket due to the efforts of former Congress leader and relative Yashpal Arya.
During rebellion by nine Congress MLAs in March last year, Jeet Ram’s name too kept popping up but he did not join the BJP. To that end, Jeet Ram continued to remain a fence-sitter for most part of his tenure, exerting pressure on Chief Minister Harish Rawat, but never rocking his boat.
“I come from an academic background. Naturally, politics was new to me but then I made a sincere effort to help people taste the fruits of development,” says Jeet Ram.
He now seems to be facing a tough time against Magan Lal Shah, who is going to town telling voters about the absentee professor who seldom spared time for them.
“The only credible thing about Jeet Ram is he had a long paid holiday from his university. But still he failed to deliver. There are several issues which did not catch his attention,” says Magan Lal Shah.
However, Jeet Ram’s supporters rubbish such charges and say the MLA paid attention to health and education issues.
“He has houses at Nainital and Tharali and has to move between the two places. But he has always been conscious of his duty as a lawmaker,” says Balbir, a local resident.
Magan Lal Shah is upbeat about his prospects following the rallies of Union Health Minister JP Nadda, BJP president Amit Shah and former Union Minister for Roads and Highways. He says, “I will work to link the Ghat, Nand Prayaj, Tharali and Narayanbagad blocks through a road, as at present we have to travel through Karanprayag. My area will benefit a great deal with the setting up of a cold storage, as our fruit and vegetable crops go waste in the absence of the cold storage facility,” he says.
