Shivraj Singh Chouhan prepares for bypoll by dropping in for three cups of tea

For Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Maihar is more than just any other byelection because it follows the humiliating defeat his party, the BJP, suffered in Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha constituency last month and the reversals in urban body elections last week.

Chouhan flew to Satna, the district headquarters, last week and spent the night in Maihar. He visited several municipal wards in Maihar and heard out residents recounting their problems.

The CM of 10 years had tea with the Dalit, the OBC and the Muslim in a carefully scripted series of visits to their houses. In the less than 24 hours he spent in the constituency, he visited places of worship of different communities and promised to convert Maihar into a mini smart city at a cost of Rs 25 crore, and the district headquarters into a smart city. The money for the mini smart city will be spent on door-to-door-garbage collection, installation of CCTV cameras and beautifying a lake besides other initiatives.

He promised more land to convert the existing temple of Sant Ravidas into a grander one. He announced that Agroha-Dham in Hisar in Haryana will be covered under the state’s free pilgrimage scheme for the elderly, saying he was doing so at the instance of the Agrawal community.

Referring to the CM’s Maihar visit, the Congress’s main spokesman K K Mishra said, “He did something similar in Ratlam but the outcome proved that his theatrics did not bear any fruit. We will also respond with our own social engineering and win the bypoll.” Much before the election was announced in Ratlam, the CM had visited the constituency several times and doled out sops and announced a slew of schemes, none of which helped the BJP stop Kantilal Bhuria from winning the parliamentary seat.

While the Congress is yet to name its candidate, the BJP had announced months ago that it will reward Tripathi’s defection with an assembly ticket. Tripathi, who once represented the Samajwadi Party in the assembly, was with Chouhan throughout the visit.