BJP leaders are wondering in private if the much-publicised anti-Bihari remark of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan, on the eve of voting, cost it dear as the party lost the bypoll for the Vaishali Nagar Assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.

Only 2,072 votes separated the BJP’s Jageshwar Sahu from the Congress’s winning candidate Bhajan Singh Nirankari, in a seat that has a sizeable number of voters of Bihari origin. Part of Bhilai city, the Vaishali Nagar constituency has a cosmopolitan character.

A senior BJP leader from Bhilai said Chouhan’s comment may have hit the party. “The timing was bad as it sent the wrong message,” the party leader said.

There is a history to the “Bihari angle” in the seat. During the November 2008 Assembly elections, then sitting BJP MP from Durg Tara Chand Sahu had unleashed a campaign against “Biharis”, apparently to target senior party leader Prem Prakash Pandey, who was contesting from Bhilai constituency, and BJP national secretary Saroj Pandey, who at that time had contested from Vaishali Nagar. While Prem Prakash lost the election, Saroj won. However, anger has been brewing among the Bihari migrants against the party.

Sahu, who was expelled from the BJP for “anti-party” activities during last year’s Assembly polls, also contested the Vaishali Nagar bypoll this time. Having floated the Chhattisgarh Swabhiman Manch, he polled more than 9,000 votes, and may have contributed to the BJP’s narrow defeat.

In fact, the party had fielded Jageshwar Sahu with an eye on the powerful Sahu community vote and to counter Tara Chand Sahu. Jageshwar maintained a marginal lead till the twelfth round of counting, but saw fortunes turn in the last four. Congress candidate Nirankari, who is considered close to AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, polled 44,860 votes, to Jageshwar’s 42,788.