Abstract: In the presence of relativistic, wakefield driven by the ponderomotive force and nonlinear polarization effects, the propagation characteristics of an intense short laser pulse in a partially stripped plasma are investigated. The evolution equation of the laser spot size is derived using variational technique. The matched parameters of laser and plasma for propagation with constant spot size are identified using the nonlinear dynamics. It is found that the laser focusing is enhanced in partially stripped plasma as compared to fully ionized plasma and also by the wakefield effects. The laser intensity for focusing dominates over the plasma density in partially stripped plasma. The results may be significant theoretically to the mechanism of ionization-induced injection and acceleration by an intense short laser.