Rajesh Shukla, a guest teacher in Raipura removed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, vows, “Ab mamaji ko hatana hai”. But he will vote for Modi in 2019 irrespective of the candidate. “The BJP has fielded an outsider who never did any work here during his stint as MLA. We will vote for SP as it has fielded a son of soil who was always available for us whenever we called.” Gonds in Karri also say that though they haven’t decided but the SP candidate is the only local face they know. In Bijawar town, elders in Ahirwar colony don’t want to reveal their voting intention. The youngsters however are quite vocal. “Our local MLA didn’t do any work in last five years. Why should we vote for him? Next year, we intend to vote for Modi but will also look at the candidate,” says 18-year old Sultan Ahirwar who will be voting for the first time.

One RSS karyakarta from neighbouring Panna who talked to Swarajya on condition of anonymity said, “Speaking from purely electoral perspective, the government has wasted a lot of money by spending on SCs/STs under PMAY or Ujjwala. It’s okay for welfare but if the idea was to win votes based on that, it won’t work. Because here it’s the liquor on election eve and not the PMAY that will decide the voting. The government made two mistakes. First, it should’ve spent the money on OBCs instead who can "persuade” even SCs/STs to vote for you in their areas. Second, if the target was only welfare delivery, then at the very least the money could’ve been routed through BJP or Sangh karyakartas at the grassroots who can get you their votes on election day.”

This is definitely a sharper political strategy and has been perfected by Congress over the decades by attaching welfare delivery to party loyalty. But Narendra Modi’s approach so far suggests that he isn’t interested in replacing the Congress with the BJP while keeping this model intact. He wants to destroy this very model of patronage. It is precisely for this reason that his focus has been on eliminating the middlemen as far as social schemes are concerned. Only time will tell whether he succeeds on not.

In the meantime, people in Chhatarpur district are grateful to PM Narendra Modi’s Awas and Ujjwala yojana and acknowledge openly the good work done by the central government. However, this goodwill that the Prime Minister has earned among the backward classes in the state is unlikely to help CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan reap electoral benefits.