As Uttarakhand went to the polls today, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, once again slammed the BJP for giving ticket to Ganesh Joshi. Joshi had, allegedly, thrashed a police horse, Shaktiman, at a protest rally by the BJP last year. The horse’s hind leg was badly damaged, and it died in a few months. Joshi is contesting from the Mussoorie constituency. Said Robert Vadra in a Facebook post today, “It intrigues me what is BJP’s criteria of choosing its candidates? Will India have leaders like Joshi who are inhuman? Shocking and saddening.” In August, last year, Vadra had a fiery verbal spat with Joshi at the Dehradun airport on the issue.
Joshi, who was arrested after national outrage over the incident, was soon released on bail. Said Joshi, “The horse stumbled while stepping back and broke its leg. The whole thing was a conspiracy against me.”
Uttarakhand Congress president Kishore Upadhyay said that the voters of Mussoorie would not forget Joshi for beating the horse to death. “The BJP should not have given him a ticket. It shows that the party likes people who are violent in nature,” said Upadhyay to THE WEEK. He said the Congress would win the assembly elections in Uttarakhand with two-thirds majority.
The election in Uttarakhand was held today with a reasonable turnout. Around 74.20 lakh voters will decide the fate of 628 candidates in 69 of 70 assembly constituencies. Election in Karnaprayag constituency has been postponed to March 9, because of the death of the BSP candidate there.
Former speaker of the Uttarakhand assembly and BJP MLA Harbans Kapoor said that there was nothing wrong in making Joshi a candidate. “The horse got injured on its own. Joshi didn’t thrash him to death. Even after that, Joshi was arrested and sent to jail. I am confident that he will win with a handsome majority from Mussoorie,” said Kapoor to THE WEEK.
The 13-year-old Shaktiman was a well-trained horse that was part of the Uttarakhand Mounted Police for years. Soon after the injury, the horse was fitted with an artificial leg. But it did not recover from an infection caused by the injury.
