Loan waiver, right faces clicked for Cong
RAIPUR: The championing of the farmers’ cause and the promise of a farm loan waiver were among the main reasons for the Congress’s victory in Chhattisgarh, according to party leaders involved in the electoral planning. The Congress’s constant criticism of the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government over escalating agrarian distress gave the party an edge, they added.
Congress’s Chhattisgarh election strategist, Vinod Verma, said the party’s Bhupesh Baghelled state unit took the government head-on over a host of the people’s issues.
“The party workers regularly hit the streets while its legislators raised these issues vociferously in the assembly.” He credited Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s promise of a farm loan waiver within 10 days of coming to power for giving a “further fillip” to the Congress’s efforts.
The Congress repeatedly raised the issue of bonuses for farmers over and above the minimum support prices the Centre had announced for paddy. “Ultimately, the Raman Singh-led BJP government succumbed to the pressure and announced the bonuses,” said a Congress leader, who did not wish to be named.
Congress strategists said the strengthening of the party at the grassroots level and appointing the right people to important posts, keeping ‘social engineering’ in mind, also worked in its favour. The Congress had put in place committees across the 24,000 booths in the state. It provided the booth-level workers two years’ training that ended in August 2018.
Another Congress leader pointed out that the party reached out to the upper caste and backward class voters, especially the dominant Kurmis and Sahus who together account for 30% of the state’s population. He said these communities have historically backed the BJP while the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are seen as the Congress vote banks. “Baghel, a Kurmi, was chosen as the state unit head five years ago while Tamradhwaj Sahu, a Parliament member, was made a member of the Congress Working Committee six months back. Both these leaders were the faces of the campaign,” said the leader, who also did not want to be named.
Both Baghel and Sahu are said to be the front-runners for the chief ministerial post. The party leaders feel that the Congress’s gains in the Raigarh-bilaspurRaipur belt indicate a major shift in the voting pattern among the backward classes in its favour.
BJP spokesman Sacchidanand Upasne blamed anti-incumbency for the loss. “…we were in the government for 15 years. We will analyse the results.”
Political analyst Ashok Tomar said the Congress has managed to get the backward classes’ support as they were feeling marginalised due to upper caste domination in the government. “Representatives of upper castes dominated Raman Singh’s cabinet despite their minuscule numbers. The Congress has been nurturing backward class leaders… like Baghel and Sahu.”
Rahul Gandhi’s intervention to curb infighting within the Congress and his 19 rallies
20 10 2003 2008
across the state in the run-up to the polls, too, have been credited for the party’s win. A news channel had on October 2 aired a purported video clip showing a party leader talking to Baghel about a “CD of Congress leader PL Punia”. Baghel was in September released on bail in a case involving a sleazy, morphed CD that purportedly contained a clip of a Chhattisgarh minister. “After the controversy erupted, the party president [Gandhi] summoned all senior leaders to Delhi. On October 5, he formed a five-member committee to oversee the campaign-related work. And beginning October 10, the party president addressed 19 rallies, striking a direct connect with the electorate,’’ said another Congress leader. “His repeated presence in the state kept the flock together, which is reflecting in the result.”
The Congress leaders maintained Gandhi struck a chord with the voters by repeating the promises. “In one rally he said that the new Congress chief minister will not be in office if he fails to deliver the promise of waiving farm loans within 10 days of taking oath. It showed that the Congress was serious in the promises it was making,” said the Congress leader.
2013 2018