candidate Manju Dadu defeated Antar Singh of Congress. The Nepanagar seat was vacated following the death of sitting MLA Rajendra Shyamlal Dadu in a road accident.

Citizens of the two constituencies have credited the BJP's attractive policies and the inability of the Congress party to appeal to them for the results. "It's due to Modi and chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that the BJP has won. Senior Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh failed to make their presence felt in this by-election; they failed to use the demonetisation issue to their advantage. Moreover, several attractive schemes of the state government worked in favour of the BJP candidates," said Pramod Singh, a cooperative society employee from Nepanagar.

However, while the BJP won in Shahdol, its margin reduced from 2,41,301 votes to 60,333.Initially, the Congress was upbeat about this Lok Sabha seat; at one point in time, it was even expected it would win here. Congress candidate Himadri Singh, who belongs to the royal family of Pushparajgarh, was said to have an edge over Gyan Singh, who was considered an "outsider" from Umaria.

Political analysts feel it was Chouhan's master strategy that catapulted Gyan Singh to the winning seat. Initially, Gyan Singh himself was not convinced about contesting, but Chouhan considered his candidature above other aspiring candidates and fielded him.

The BJP holds 27 out of 29 Lok Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh, while its tally in Vidhan Sabha is 165 from the 230-seat House.

In July this year, the BJP had lost three municipal body polls in Isagarh, Maihar and Mandeep to