Sushma Swaraj appears to have been reduced to a footnote in Vidisha.

She has represented this Lok Sabha constituency for two terms, holding significant positions of leader of Opposition and external affairs minister, but in Vidisha one has to struggle to spot her presence.

Pushed to the margins under the Modi-Shah duopoly and constrained by a renal surgery, Sushma “unilaterally” announced in the middle of the December Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh last year that she would not contest this Lok Sabha election. Though she cited health reasons for her decision, the announcement came as surprise in party circles.

In Vidisha, a small town around 57km from state capital Bhopal, one has to concentrate on the BJP hoardings to realise that one of the faces in the inset is that of Sushma. Apart from this, she is conspicuous by her absence. The BJP has fielded a little known local party leader, Ramakant Bhargav, and he dominates the hoardings. Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, whose Assembly segment Budhni falls under this constituency, figures prominently along with his wife. Shivraj represented Vidisha five times before he became CM, and the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee was also an MP from here.

Ask about the absence of Sushma, BJP workers say that in Vidisha it’s the party’s lotus symbol and not the candidate that is important.

“Vidisha has been an RSS-BJP stronghold for decades. Here, people vote for the symbol and not the personality,” said Madan Srivastava, a BJP worker.

The BJP’s foot soldiers are, of course, pitching this as Narendra Modi’s election. “We have to cast the vote on the lotus symbol but it will go directly to Modi,” said Nand Kumar, another BJP worker.

Vidisha has been a saffron bastion since the Jana Sangh days but the Congress staged a surprise in the Assembly polls last December by winning two of the eight Assembly segments, Vidisha and Sanchi. It was a big blow for the BJP. The question being debated in Vidisha now is will the large chunk of voters who switched to the Congress return to the saffron fold.

“I voted Congress for the first time. I have been a committed BJP voter since the nineties,” said Ratan Lal Sharma, a farmer. “But in this election I’m going to vote for Modi. Congress has betrayed us,” he added, claiming the promised farm loan waiver hasn’t happened.

He said he had a loan of Rs 2 lakh which has not been waived.

Rajiv Bhatt, another farmer, said he was happy that his loan of Rs 50,000 had been waived but he was still not sure whether he would stay with the Congress. “People in my village are saying that this vote is for the country and nobody other than Modi can be trusted,” he said.

If the BJP has got a virtual nobody to replace Sushma, the Congress too has fielded Shailendra Patel, who lost from one of the Assembly segments under Vidisha.

In private conversations, BJP managers in Bhopal said there was no question of losing Vidisha. Congress managers too felt that if they win Vidisha then it would be a big surprise.

In 2014, Sushma bagged over 66 per cent of the votes polled and won by a margin of over 4 lakh votes. In 2009, when the BJP lost nationally, she had garnered 78 per cent of the votes.

If the margin dips significantly this time, it will be an indicator that many loyal BJP voters who switched to the Congress in the December Assembly polls did not return.

Vidisha votes today