Chief Minister Shivraj Singh received a serious jolt on Tuesday when the BJP lost prestigious Ratlam-Jhabua lok Sabha seat. The Congress tally in lok Sabha, on the eve of winter session of parliament has gone up from 44 to 45.
It was a rude jolt to Shivraj, as it was a prestige election for him to prove himself. For the purpose, he had addressed a total of 52 election meetings but to no avail. The BJP not only lost the lok Sabha seat, but got defeated in seven assembly segments out of eight falling under this.
For past 15 days, Chouhan, facing multi-crore job recruitment and professional examination (VYAPAM) scam had camped in Ratlam, Jhabu and Alirajpur, held dozens of public meetings and repeatedly boasted about BJP’s victory.
Shivraj had questioned Ratlam’s past reputation as a Congress citadel saying, “It is a myth that the constituency elects only a Congress leader and we will definitely prove it wrong,’’ The Congress has won all parliamentary polls at Ratlam since 1952 except for 1971, 1977 and 2014.
It is a personal setback for Shivraj, as besides him, he had pressed in eleven State ministers and four MPs including Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Thavarchand Gehlot and state BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan had camped in Ratlam during the by-election. There were as many as 27 BJP MlAs who had stayed put in the constituency throughout the 15 day campaign period.
On the contrary, it was a personal victory of former Union Minister and former PCC Chief Kantilal Bhuria. From Congress, only few leaders including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kaml Nath and Digvijay Singh had campaigned only once in the constituency.
Kantilal was so alert that even after voting on November 21, he and his team of loyal supporters had taken turns to keep round the clock vigil at three district headquarters where electronic voting machines were kept. Kantilal had said he was leaving nothing to chance while describing the BJP as capable of doing anything to win the election.