Former Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra's bid for a political comeback suffered a major blow after the BJP denied him a ticket for the Datia Assembly bypoll, opting instead to field organisational leader Ashutosh Tiwari for the July 30 contest.
The party's decision came as a surprise, as Mishra had for months been viewed as the leading contender for the seat and had stepped up political activity across the constituency in preparation for the election.
Over the past several months, the six-time MLA had been regularly travelling between Bhopal and Datia, holding meetings with party leaders, grassroots workers and members of various communities in an effort to strengthen his support base.
According to leaders close to him, Mishra frequently conducted marathon meetings that stretched for hours, with hundreds of party workers meeting him each day. Only a few days earlier, he had purchased a nomination form, a move that was widely seen as an indication that he had the backing of the BJP leadership for his candidature.
The Datia seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti was disqualified following his conviction in a decades-old bank fraud case, paving the way for the bypoll. The election was expected to provide Mishra with an opportunity to regain the constituency, which he had represented for nearly two decades before his unexpected defeat in the 2023 Assembly election.
That loss proved to be a defining moment in Mishra's political career. Long regarded as one of the BJP's most influential leaders in Madhya Pradesh and at one stage considered a potential future chief minister, he not only lost his Assembly seat in 2023 but also the image of electoral invincibility that had long been associated with him.
