NK'S POST

NK SINGH Two news items this week did not get the attention that they deserved. After BJP’s defeat in Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly by-election, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited some villages in the two constituencies.  These villages were selected carefully: these were the communities that bucked the trend and voted overwhelmingly for BJP. It was a thanks giving tour by a grateful leader. Chouhan visited Dhodhiya and Gunheru villages in Ashoknagar district on March 4. The helmets were singled out for this privilege because BJP got 490 votes in Dhondhiya as against 90 polled by Congress. Similarly, in Gunheru village his party had secured maximum number of votes. The chief minister showered gifts on the villages – Dhondhiya, Gunheru, Semri and Banjara Chak – that preferred BJP over Congress, as a thanks-giving gesture. “If they have given without restrain,” he declared, “why should I maintain restrain!” The CM was flanked by the defeated BJP candidate...

NK SINGH The BJP in Madhya Pradesh is certainly not in a position to rejoice over the party’s victory in Tripura and Nagaland. Its spin doctors are propagating the myth that defeat in Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly by-elections does not matter because the constituencies they lost were traditional Congress strongholds. Facts do not support this narrative. The Congress had won Mungaoli only five times out of the 13 elections held there until now. Similarly, it captured Kolaras only 6 out of 13 times. As recently as 2008 assembly elections, both constituencies had favoured BJP. True, the two seats form part of Congress satrap Jyotiraditya Scindia’s parliamentary constituency. So suffering a defeat there would have been a big loss of face for him. It is also true that Congress barely managed to retain both seats, with a vastly reduced margin. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan patted himself on the back for putting up a good fight: “We lost there in 2013 election even whe...