Despite the adverse ground realities, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making all out efforts in the Ratlam-Jhabua parliamentary constituency by-election. like any other elections in the State, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is leading from the front, besides other senior leaders campaigning.
Having made development as its major poll plank, the saffron party leaders campaigning in the constituency are State BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan and the party's State general secretary Arvind Menon since Diwali. Union Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya and State Ministers Gopal Bhargava, Narottam Mishra, Umashankar Gupta and Antar Singh Arya have also solicited votes.
This apart, the saffron party has also deployed all its minority leaders of the State, including minority cell State president Hidayatulla Sheikh and Madhya Pradesh Waqf Board chairman Shokat Mohammed Khan to make inroads in the minority votes that are sizeable in the constituency. The saffron party’s candidate is Nirmala Bhuria, daughter of former MP Dilip Singh Bhuria, whose demise has necessitated the bypoll.
Political observers feel that Congress candidate Kantilal Bhuria, hailing from Jhabua, has no major achievement to his credit. Besides, his apathy towards Ratlam could prove to be his bane. The grand old party is raising inflation and other issues to take on the BJP.
The Congress is also making efforts to regain its lost prestige in the constituency, which was once its traditional bastion and where it ruled mostly unchallenged from 1952 to 2014, except during the decade from 1971 to 1980.
State Congress chief Arun Yadav has been camping in the constituency for long and working hard for Bhuria, who once helped out Yadav when he (Bhuria) was PCC Chief. The other leaders who have at least once campaigned in the constituency in favour of Bhuria include MP in-charge General Secretary Mohan Prakash, Former Union ministers Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajasthan Congress President Sachin Pilot and Maharashtra Congress Spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam. A total of eight candidates are in the fray for the November 21 by-elections although the main fight is between Congress candidate Kantilal Bhuria and BJP nominee Nirmala Bhuria. Counting is scheduled on November 24.