While Congress's electoral performance in Assembly polls across the country remained quite gloomy, it had a small occasion of satisfaction in Madhya Pradesh as its candidate Ajay Tandon won the Damoh Assembly bypoll by 17,089 votes.
Tandon had looked looked set to retain the seat for the party as he took an unassailable lead of over 14,000 votes after 24 rounds of counting over BJP's Rahul Lodhi.
The bypoll was necessitated as Lodhi, who had won the seat in the 2018 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket, resigned in October 2020 amidst the heat of bypolls to 28 seats.
The result of the bypoll has hardly any bearing on the governance in the state as the BJP is well entrenched in Madhya Pradesh with 126 MLAs of its own and six non-Congress MLAs supporting the government in a house of 230.
Even as the Congress took small consolation out of the win taking its tally to 95 in the Assembly, the day brought bad news for the party as it lost ex-minister and Prithvipur MLA Brijendra Singh Rathod, who was the Damoh by-poll in-charge, to COVID-19 infection on Sunday.
This highlighted the huge negative impact of holding elections amidst the raging pandemic. The party lost another MLA–Kalawati Bhuria from Jobat, about a week ago. More than 100 BJP and Congress leaders including Rathod and ex-chief minister Digvijaya Singh had been infected by COVID-19 during the campaigning for the by-poll.
Addressing a press conference even as the last leg of by-poll counting was on, ex-CM Kamal Nath said that the victory of Tandon was attributable to the people of Damoh, who have sent out a message to the country against 'politics of trading' and a poll that was thrust of them during the pandemic time. He also said that the people had chosen the way of truth and the culture of unity in the country and Damoh win had started the countdown for the end of the BJP government in the state.
Union minister Prahlad Patel who is a member of parliament from Damoh conceded on part of the BJP and congratulated Tandon in advance. “We did not win but learnt a lot,” tweeted Patel.
Sobering day for MP BJP
On the other hand, the Congress win added to the sobering effect the Assembly polls across the state had for the MP unit of Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday. The West Bengal results where the BJP failed to cross into three-digit mark despite its high-pitched campaign and claims of crossing 200 seats, has a direct bearing on MP BJP leaders.
Two senior leaders from the state were directly involved in the WB polls. National general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya is the in-charge of WB BJP and MP home minister Narottam Mishra had the responsibility of 48 Assembly constituencies in the poll-bound state and spent numerous days in WB. Medical education Vishwas Sarang also had responsibility for a few seats. The MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also held several public meetings in West Bengal.
As for the Damoh by-poll, the BJP lost despite making all-out efforts. CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan toured the constituency five times and made several announcements of developmental works while conducting several poll meetings.
State BJP president camped there for two weeks along with the two in-charges for the bypoll—ministers Bhupendra Singh and Gopal Bhargava. Union minister Prahlad Patel and ex-chief minister Uma Bharti also campaigned furiously while Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia also campaigned.
On the other hand, ex-chief minister Kamal Nath toured the constituency thrice and Digvijaya Singh also joined the campaign in the last leg, though working more in the background.
Sources said that the strategy of Congress to toe the line that people will reply to the "betrayal" by Rahul Lodhi and "politics of trading" by BJP, paid fruits, especially in urban areas. In rural areas, the apparent apathy of BJP to the raging pandemic across the state did not go down well with the voters, sources said.
Also, it is being said that the BJP workers, loyal to BJP ex-minister Jayant Malaiya who had been contesting the seat for three decades (Rahul Lodhi defeated Malaiya with a thin margin in 2018) could not wholeheartedly work for Lodhi despite the party managing to bring an upset Malaiya around just before the campaigning for the bypoll started.
