And the elation in the BJP camp is amply justified. To begin with, it has managed to snatch Jabera from the Congress. The seat was won by Congress Party candidate Ratnesh Solomon in the 2008 assembly elections. The by-election was necessitated by the death of Solomon and the Congress had fielded his daughter Dr. Tanya Solomon, obviously with an eye on the sympathy vote. But the voters remained unimpressed. On the other hand, the caste factor worked for the BJP. It had nominated a Lodi as its candidate. And Lodis have a sizeable population in Jabera.

Jabera is BJP’s third consecutive victory in by-polls held this year. Earlier, the BJP had snatched the Sonkatch and Kukshi seats from the Congress. Post-Jabera, the BJP tally in the 230-member MP House has touched 153. The BJP had won 143 seats in the 2008 assembly polls. Since then, it had added 10 members to its contingent—five by annexing Congress-held seats in by-polls and another five owing to the merger of Uma Bharati’s Bharatiya Janashakti party with the BJP. Five Bharatiya Janashakti MLAs have formally joined the BJP.

For the Congress, the contest had become a prestigious one as it was the fist electoral battle after the change in the leadership of the organisational as well as the legislative wings of the party. Jabera was an acid test for the new leader of opposition in the assembly Ajay Singh and new PCC President Kantilal Bhuria. The latter had replaced Suresh Pachauri, who was seen as an ineffective leader. Pachauri, it was said, had failed to revive the party’s fortunes in the state, which is being ruled by the BJP since 2003. Ajay Singh had been nominated in place of tribal leader Ms. Jamuna Devi, who had passed away.

The Congress had worked hard to save Jabera. After a long time, the party appeared to be a united entity. All senior leaders had campaigned in Jabera. But to no avail.

Those in the know feel that the ruling BJP’s position was fast becoming unassailable in the state. The Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan seems to have caught the imagination of the people. The series of “Panchayats” of representatives of various sections of the society, including farmers, artisans and domestic workers, organised by Chauhan at his official residence from time to time have reaped rich dividends for the ruling party.

The Congress is dishing out clichéd excuses for its defeat. “It is the government and not the BJP which has won”, said Ajay Singh. He alleged that money and muscle power was used liberally by the ruling party. However, he conceded that the party needed to introspect and “we are going to do it quite seriously: Whatever may be their public stance, the Congress leaders accept in private that the string of scams at the Centre, rising prices and the UPA government’s response to the anti-corruption campaigns of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev were working to the disadvantage of the Congress. “The aam admi is feeling the pinch of the spiraling prices and has come to hold the Congress responsible for it”, remarked a senior leader.

Meanwhile, bubbling with enthusiasm, the state BJP has already started preparing for the 2013 assembly polls. The party has decided to especially concentrate on the 77 constituencies, held by other parties and Independents. In-charges have been appointed for each of these constituencies and the loser BJP candidates have been asked to get cracking. They have been asked to intensively tour their constituencies, raise people’s problems and to generally make themselves visible. (IPA)