The hopes of Congress to revive the grand old party in Uttarakhand suffered a major setback after the result of the Tharali assembly bye-elections were declared on Thursday. After suffering a shocking defeat in the Uttarakhand assembly election held last year, Congress was hopeful of winning Tharali seat to give them a booster dose before the local body elections.

The BJP retained the Tharali assembly seat, defeating arch rival Congress in a head-to-head fight. The Congress failed to break the losing streak in the hill state. BJP’s Munni Devi won the Tharali bye-election by a margin of 1981 votes. Munni Devi got 25,737 votes and Congress candidate Dr Jeet Ram secured 23,756 votes.

She is the widow of Magan Lal Shah, the BJP MLA whose death necessitated the bypoll.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said, “The win was possible due to the hard work of party workers. The fight was head-to-head and that’s why the win margin is not big. The polling was low as the villagers have moved to high Himalayas for collecting herbs, which is source of their livelihood.”

The defeat has at least silenced ex-Uttarakhand chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat. This time he has not blamed the EVM for the loss. Commenting on the bye-election Harish Rawat said, “The party workers worked hard. They were able to reduce the defeat margin but win maintained some distance from us. Don’t lose heart.”

Congress missed a fine opportunity to taste win. Munni Devi was in deep grief due to death of her husband and many times not in a position to speak properly in public. Congress had opted for the ex-legislator Dr Jeet Ram, but the party failed to manage the polls and suffered defeat.

Despite facing a fresher, BJP played the sentimental card of fielding a widow and the experiment clicked for the saffron party. Munni Devi was leading in all the 15 rounds, but despite this the social media was flooded with fake information about Congress leading in Tharali.

The 2017 state assembly election Shah had registered a convincing victory over Jeet Ram. Shah got 25,810 votes and Jeet Ram 20,889 votes.