BJP pins hope on Bastar and Jogi to win Chhattisgarh
LOOKING AHEAD With a threefold strategy in mind, BJP is turning to tribals in Maoistdominated areas to win the state
The BJP is turning to tribals in three Chhattisgarh districts under the grip of Maoist rebels and is hoping former chief minister Ajit Jogi will neutralize the impact of a possible tie-up between the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in this year’s assembly election.
In the last assembly election ,the BJP won only four out of 12 assembly seats in the southern districts of Bastar, Kanker and Dantewada where the Maoists wield influence. It won just one out of eight in the northern district of Surguja.
“We have worked on several development projects in the tribal areas. There will be impact,” chief minister Raman Singh said in an interview after ending the first phase of his 2,700-km Vikas Yatra from Dantewada. Projects worth over Rs 30,000 crore have been launched.
The Congress and the BSP are discussing a pre-poll pact to end the 15-year-long uninterrupted rule of the BJP in the tribal-dominated state and unseat Singh, the longest serving chief minister of his party. The BSP polled 560,000 votes in the 2013 assembly election, six times the margin by which BJP defeated Congress.
“The BSP, generally, takes about 4-5 % of votes in an election. If the Congress forges an alliance with the BSP, then certainly we will have a different strategy to counter it,” Singh said.
Chhattisgarh has always elected its ruler by a wafer-thin margin that has got thinner with every election.
The BJP strategy is threefold, a party functionary in Delhi said on condition of anonymity.
First, mobilize the organization in the seven assembly seats that the BJP has never won in the past. Full-time workers have already been deployed in those constituencies.
Second, woo the adivasi population of south Chhattisgarh through development projects. They largely went with the Congress last time and Singh’s yatra from is aimed at winning them back. Third, a smart distribution of election tickets to neutralize the personal anti-incumbency of BJP legislators. A large number of MLAs could be in trouble this time, the party functionary said.
As many as 30 seats witnessed a close fight in 2008. Of these, 20 seats went to the BJP with a margin that was less than the votes polled by Congress and the BSPGondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) put together. The BSP played the spoiler in eight seats and the GGP in six others. The Congress is in talks with the GGP, which has pockets of influence in tribal-dominated areas.
The BJP won 12 seats and lost six with a margin of less than 5,000 votes. The Congress won five assembly constituencies and lost 13 with a margin of less than 5,000 votes. The challenge in Chhattisgarh is daunting, party insiders admit. They hope former chief minister and rebel Congress leader AJit Jogi, whose fledging Chhattisgarh Janta Congress will be in the fray this time, will snatch a sizeable chunk of the scheduled caste votes and dent the other support base of the Congress party. Jogi has a significant hold over the Satnami community, which accounts for nearly half of Chhattisgarh’s total scheduled caste population - about 13%. Votes polled Seats won
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