Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh: Congress workers are celebrating the party’s 45th Lok Sabha seat courtesy Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, which has handed the party a constituency won by the BJP last year.

In bye-election results announced today, former state Congress chief Kantilal Bhuria defeated the BJP’s Nirmala Bhuria by over 88000 to win his party’s third Lok Sabha seat in a state which has long been a BJP bastion.

Nirmala Bhuria is the daughter of Dileep Singh Bhuria, the BJP lawmaker who had won from Ratlam in last year’s national election.

Mr Bhuria’s death in June this year necessitated the bye-election, which had become a prestige battle for Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of the BJP, who held 27 rallies and four road shows in Ratlam to campaign for his party.

Kantilal Bhuria, 65, a former union minister said he saw the bye-election as a direct contest between him and the chief minster.

“This contest was definitely between Shivraj and I. Nirmala was a dummy candidate and the chief minister, during the campaign, said that you vote for me I will work for your welfare. But, people knew he was lying,” the Congressman said.

It wasn’t just the chief minister that the BJP had fielded. Almost 50 legislators and a dozen state cabinet ministers also campaigned in Ratlam.

When the results were announced today, Chouhan was in Hyderabad. From there, he first tweeted about the BJP’s victory in another a bye-election, to an assembly seat in Dewas which the party retained, and only a few hours later about the defeat in Ratlam.

He described the win in Dewas as “a symbol of the people’s love.” In Ratlam, he said, the party “humbly accepts the people’s verdict.”