In tight contest, all eyes on JOGI-BSP

RAIPUR: Will chief minister Raman Singh secure a historic fourth term? Will the Congress wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after 15 years, or will former Congress chief minister Ajit Jogi emerge kingmaker?

All these questions would be answered on Tuesday when the fate of 1,079 candidates are revealed during counting of votes.

Exit polls predict a neck-andneck fight between the two major parties and the Congress plans to pack off its legislators from Raipur to Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka where the party is in power, in case of a hung assembly or a slender majority in the 91-member assembly.

“We are confident of a win. But we are also aware of the Amit Shah-model, hence we are extra cautious. Vehicles are ready to ship the legislators to Bangalore,” said a Congress leader, who has been instrumental in party’s election management in the state.

“A lot is at stake in Chhattisgarh for the BJP, so they would use all tricks to keep the state in their kitty. We don’t want a repeat of Goa in case we get a wafer thin majority or emerge single largest party,” another leader involved in the election campaign said, referring to Goa assembly election in 2017 where Congress emerged the singlelargest party but BJP cobbled together a coalition government.

The BJP claimed the Congress was day-dreaming.“we are getting more than 55 seats and we are confident. They are in fear and don’t trust their own legislators. We are not engaged in these sort of practices and we will form government on our own,” said Sacchinand Upasane, BJP spokesperson.

Elections in Chhattisgarh have been close contests in terms of voteshare.in the last assembly election in 2013, the difference in voteshare between the two rival parties was less than one percentage point (0.75%). The BJP won 49 seats, the Congress got 39 while the Bahujan Samaj Party and an independent bagged one seat each. Polling in 27 districts was held in two phases and the total turnout was around 76.6%.

The BJP banked on its so-called development agenda while the Congress focused on farmers’ distress and allegations of corruption, besides promising a loan waiver to farmers and higher Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy if voted to power.

The election is also a test for Jogi, who floated a regional front Janata Congress Chhattisgarh and struck an alliance with the BSP. Jogi is said to have an influence among the scheduled caste community.

Both major parties expressed confidence about a victory.

“We are winning Chhattisgarh and will easily cross the mark of 46 seats. We are hoping for twothirds majority. There was wave in favour of us and party because of farmers’ distress and movements across the state. People of Chhattisgarh are fed-up with Raman Singh and his government and hence they have voted us,” said Congress general secretary PL Punia.

Raman Singh said there was no possibility of a hung assembly as his party was getting more than 50 seats. “We are confident that we will form the government fourth time without any external support,” said Singh.