Battle for Maihar intensifies

BHOPAL: With the election campaign in Maihar entering into the last lap, both ruling BJP and Congress are leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters in this temple town of Satna district which goes to bypoll on Saturday.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will hold road shows and address nearly 40 public meetings and gatherings throughout Maihar from Tuesday till campaigning comes to a halt on Thursday evening.Chouhan has asked his old trusted friend and Union minister for steels and mines Narendra Singh Tomar to join the campaign for BJP's Narayan Tripathy. Congress has also planned public meetings for its candidate Manish Patel, roping in Central leaders Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Digvijaya Singh. State Congress president Arun Yadav said Digvijaya Singh has launched the last phase of campaigning for the Congress on Tuesday.
In a seat where there are 40,000 Brahmin and 35,000 Kurmi voters, the final tussle is over the 10,000 Thakur votes. This is primarily why the chief minister has summoned Tomar, who apart from being the former state BJP president, hails from the Thakur community. Tomar is expected to manage the BJP's equations against the influence of state Congress leader Ajay Singh who has been relentlessly working to retain the seat for the Congress over the past couple of months.
For the BJP, the loss of Maihar assembly seat will not hit the government which has two-thirds majority in the House. But after Ratlam debacle in November last year, the defeat in Maihar would be a major blow for the morale of the ruling party which so far has lost only two out of 14 bypolls since 2003. Victory in Maihar would not only give a tremendous boost to the BJP but would also stabilise the position of chief minister Chouhan whose image has taken a beating after the loss of Bahoriband assembly seat in 2014 and Ratlam in 2015. In December last year, the BJP also lost five out of eight municipal council elections.
The Congress is full of hope and a victory in Maihar would mean that the winds of change have finally started blowing in its favour in the state where they have been out of power for 12 years. If Congress wins Maihar, which is traditionally considered its bastion, it will prove a strong reason for the party's workers to mobilise against the BJP.