In the second phase of the Assembly elections for Chhattisgarh on Friday, 958 candidates — 827 men, 130 women and one transgender person — will contest for 70 of the 90 Vidhan Sabha seats that remain after the first phase. These are spread across 22 districts of four revenue divisions, namely Surguja, Bilaspur, Raipur and Durg.
Voters will choose between repeating the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government that spent a huge chunk of loans it took in its five years on pro-farmer policies and welfare schemes, and the BJP, whose campaign was based on a string of corruption charges against the ruling party.
In 2018, the Congress had won 68 seats, up from 39 in 2013, while the BJP tally had fallen to 15 seats from 49 in 2013.
Though ‘rice politics’ set the narrative for this election, major issues people face in the predominantly agricultural state are unemployment, lack of water supply, quality education and the ownership of jal, jangal aur zameen (water, forest and land). While Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in his election speech, promised that there won’t be any land acquisition without the consent of the local gram sabha, tribals are presently protesting in Lailunga and Dharamjaigarh Assembly seats of Raigarh district, against alleged illegal land grab by private players.
The Congress also wooed Other Backward Castes (OBCs) with the promise of a caste survey.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra and CM Baghel led the campaign for the ruling party with the claim that they were concerned about the interest of the poor, while the BJP-led Centre only works for the welfare of the rich.
In the absence of a CM face, and the return of the old leadership that had lost in a landslide in 2018, pundits are giving full credit to the BJP’s central leadership for bringing the party back to life in the state during the last few months.
The BJP campaign was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with star campaigners Himanta Biswa Sarma, Yogi Adityanath and others. They targeted the Baghel-led government over corruption, particularly the alleged Mahadev betting app scam, recruitment scandal, Naxalism, and allegations of religious conversion and ‘appeasement politics’.
Shah in particular asked people to vote in the name of Modi and not their local candidates. In his speeches at Jashpur and Raigarh, he also said tribal leader Vishnu Deo Sai and ex-IAS officer O P Choudhary will play big roles if the BJP returns to power, hinting that they could be among the party’s chief ministerial choices.
However, the saffron party, which had ruled Chhattisgarh for 15 years, has an uphill task besting the Congress, whose vote share rose by 10% in 2018, when the winning margin for the BJP has never crossed 3% since 2003.
The BJP manifesto tried to match the promises of the Congress by offering higher procurement price for paddy, along with Rs 12,000 per month to married women and gas cylinders at Rs 500, but the Congress went a step ahead to promise another farm loan waiver, Rs 500 subsidy on gas cylinder refills, as well as Rs 15,000 a month to all women — announced after the first phase of elections — in what is being seen as a jittery move by CM Baghel to outbid the BJP.
All the big leaders in the fray face the ballot box on Friday. Seats to look out for are Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel from Patan, Deputy Chief Minister T S Singh Deo from Ambikapur, Home Minister and Sahu Samaj leader Tamradhwaj Sahu from Durg Rural, Speaker Charan Das Mahant from Sakti of the Congress. From the BJP, there are party state chief and Lok Sabha MP Arun Sao from Lormi, Leader of Opposition Narayan Chandel from Janjgir Champa, as well as three Lok Sabha MPs — Vijay Baghel from Patan, Union Minister Renuka Singh from Bharatpur-Sonhat and Gomti Sai from Pathalgaon.
Of the 70 seats that will go to the polls today, the ruling Congress had won 51 in 2018, while the BJP had managed only 13. In the remaining six seats, four had gone to the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh -Jogi (JCC-J) and two to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
While in the three divisions of Durg, Raipur and Surguja, the fight is mainly between the Congress and the BJP — the fourth division, Bilaspur, which will witness a four-way battle over its 25 seats today — could turn out to be the deciding factor. It is in the Bilaspur division that the BJP had performed the best in 2018, winning seven of their 15 seats. Of the remaining 16 seats, the Congress had won 12, JCC-J had won three and its ally the BSP two.
This time, the JCC-J is fighting its first election under the leadership of Amit Jogi, after his father Ajit Jogi, the first CM of Chhattisgarh, passed away in 2020. In Ajit’s absence, earlier ally BSP abandoned the JCC-J and joined hands with the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP). Two new tribal parties, Hamar Raj and Sarva Adi Dal, are also trying their luck.
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Though over the years, the BJP has used Hindutva as its main plank during elections in the state this year, it was CM Baghel who set the narrative by hiking the procurement price of paddy, going against PM Modi’s diktat, in which the Centre even cautioned the state not to give bonus over the Minimum Support Price (MSP).
“Even Amit Shah, in his Bilaspur speech, talked about paddy procurement first, and only brought up the promise of a free tour to Ayodhya for poor people at the end. Anywhere else, Ram Lalla would have come first and farmers last. For the first time in Chhattisgarh, political debates were centred around paddy. Its impact is being felt even in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. For Lok Sabha polls, Opposition parties have to follow the agenda the BJP sets, but here in Chhattisgarh, the agenda was set by CM Baghel,” said Rudra Awasthi, 61, senior Bilaspur-based journalist.
“It will be a tough fight. But it is interesting to see both parties talking about pro-farmer policies and monetary benefits to women, while hard and soft Hindutva took the back seat,” said Sushil Trivedi, 82, former state election commissioner and political commentator. (With PTI inputs)
Aisha Patel is a dedicated Indian correspondent with a deep understanding of the nation’s diverse affairs. With a background in Indian culture, politics, and current events, she provides in-depth analysis and timely reporting on domestic issues within India.
