The stakes are high for both the BJP and its Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to win Ratlam-Jhabua by-polls at all costs.
Post-Bihar defeat, the central party leadership is likely to get impatient with Chouhan, already under the cloud over the infamous Vyapam scam. Sensing far-reaching implications, Chouhan has made Ratlam-Jhabua parliamentary by-poll a prestige issue for him and is leaving nothing to chance.
Factually, the BJP's defeat in the recently held Bihar Assembly elections has shadowed the Ratlam-Jhabua by-election. The party leaders and workers are engaged in damage control in the constituency.
Party sources said that several teams have been pressed into the constituency for convincing the local party workers and voters that the BJP is out for the welfare of the public and the State government is committed for the development of the region. The teams are also out convincing the local people, during election meetings that the BJP is not at all against the reservation, as it was spread during Bihar polls.
Surprisingly, the BJP leaders reaching the constituency for campaigning do not speak out anything regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and do not count the Central government schemes during election meetings. The overall thrust of the leaders is on Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the schemes of the State government.
Even the Central leaders and Union Ministers, who have canvassed in the constituency, are only those who hail from Madhya Pradesh.
The ruling party is concentrating so much on the by-poll that the Chief Minister himself is engaged in taking close-door meetings with booth-level party workers. Generally, this is the duty of party organizational and State BJP president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan and State BJP organizational general secretary Arvind Menon are already camping in the constituency for over a fortnight.
BJP sources claimed that the Chief Minister has stopped relying anybody and putting all out efforts in the constituency, whether addressing more than half a dozen election meetings in the constituency or directly meeting the party workers, who had been annoyed with him for not fulfilling their long pending trivial demands.