Bye-elections were held in three Assembly constituencies. They were Vijayraghogarh and Bahoriband in Katni district and Agar in Agar-Malwa district. Among the three, two were with the BJP and one with the Congress. In the Assembly elections last year, Sanjay Pathak had won from the Vijayraghogarh seat as a Congress candidate but because of some serious differences with the Congress, he resigned not only from the party but also from the Assembly. Pathak then joined the BJP, which decided to reward him by sponsoring him as the BJP candidate in the bye-polls. He won the elections and thus the electorate endorsed his defection. But the BJP suffered a setback when its candidate lost the election in Bahoriband. This constituency was regarded as a BJP stronghold. The loss of this seat was regarded as a setback not only to the BJP but also the chief minister personally as he had addressed more than a dozen public meetings in the constituency.

While bye-election results may appear to be a minor setback for the BJP, they proved to be great moral booster for the Congress. The Congress routed the BJP candidate in Bahoriband, which was regarded as a BJP stronghold.

In the context of a series of scams bared in the State, it was thought that they might have affected the prestige of the chief minister and he might have fallen in the esteem of the central leadership. It was claimed by a section of the BJP that the RSS may review its attitude toward Chauhan and it might suggest some remedial measures to refurbish the image of the party, which was adversely affected by the scams. It was thought that he might cease to be a blue-eyed boy of the RSS. But these speculations proved to be wrong. Perhaps, both the central leadership of the BJP and the RSS have given him a clean chit. The first indication of the fact that he continues to enjoy the confidence of party leadership became public when a leader of his choice was made president of the state BJP. The new president, Lok Sabha member Nandkumar Chauhan was his only choice and he finally had his way.

Chauhan's prestige received another boost when he was included in the Parliamentary Board of the party. Incidentally, he is the only BJP chief minister to get a berth in the highest decision making body of the BJP. In the earlier body, Narendra Modi was the only chief minister to get a place. Besides Chauhan, two other BJP leaders who have been nominated to the Board are also elected to the Lok Sabha from Madhya Pradesh. They are Sushma Swaraj and Thawar Chand Gehlot. No other state has the distinction of having three leaders of the state as members of the Parliamentary Board.

With so many feathers in his cap, the chief minister is preparing to host a very large congregation of investors at Indore in October. This congregation is likely to be attended by more than one thousand potential investors both from India and abroad. However, doubts are being expressed by the industrial circles about the success of the investors' summit. The announcement about the dates of Indore summit has coincided with an emerging power crisis in the State. Power supply was satisfactory before the Vidhan Sabha elections held last year. Uninterrupted supply continued till the Lok Sabha elections. But suddenly, unscheduled power cuts became the order of the day. Now reports of frequent interruptions in power supply are pouring in from different parts of the state. Reports of angry demonstrations against unscheduled and unannounced cuts are coming from various towns and villages of the state. The shortage in power supply is being ascribed to the fall in the generation of hydro power due to lack of adequate rains.

Both the chief minister and Power minister, Rajendra Shukla have assured that people would not be allowed to suffer because of fall in the power generation. All out efforts would be to ensure normal supply of electricity. Shukla held an emergent meeting to review the power situation and to decide remedial measures. Addressing the meeting, Shukla said that smooth supply of quality power to all categories of consumers was the top priority of the state government. He said 24x7 power supply to domestic consumers in rural and urban areas and 10 hours to farmers must be ensured. No negligence would be tolerated.

Laying emphasis on concrete power supply management and discipline, Shukla said field staff should maintain constant watch over power supply situation and improve it further. He said apart from ensuring smooth power supply, power distribution companies should also increase their revenue. He said efforts for increasing revenue constantly should be made by effective metering, billings and collection work. (IPA Service)