Amidst the ruins of the Uttarakhand results, the ruling Congress could draw some consolation from the win on the Tehri Garhwal Lok Sabha seat, which saw a bypoll along with the Assembly elections. Congress candidate Vijay Bahuguna defeated Manujendra Shah of the BJP by more than 19,000 votes. The victory was made sweeter by the fact that it was after five consecutive defeats that the Tehri Garhwal seat has fallen into Congress kitty. The constituency had fallen vacant following the death of sitting BJP MP Maharaja Manvendra Shah, the erstwhile ruler of Tehri, and an eight-time winner from here. Manujendra is Manvendra’s son.Among those Manvendra had defeated from here was Vijay Bahuguna, the son of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna who lost to Shah twice (in the 1999 and 2004 parliamentary elections). In fact, Vijay Bahuguna has been losing consecutively the past three Lok Sabha elections. However, this time Bahuguna, with the help of his sister Reeta Bahuguna, the president of the All India Mahila Congress who campaigned tirelessly for his brother, was able to break the jinx. Manujendra had hoped to win the seat on the sympathy wave for his father, who was considered ‘Bolanda Badri’ (a living incarnation of Lord Vishnu) for being the custodian of the holy shrines of Badrinath and Kedarnath. However, the Bahugunas were obviously able to live down the influence of the royal household of Tehri Garhwal. “This is a win for the democratic forces against the autocratic Maharajas and a confidence vote for the policies of the UPA Government at the Centre,” a victorious Vijay Bahuguna said.
