CHHATTISGARH: THE DANTEWADA TEST
With the national and state elections going opposite ways, the BJP and Congress are fighting a pitched battle over a bypoll
After a lull of a few months, Chhattisgarh is in election mode again. A byelection is due in the Scheduled Tribe assembly segment of Dantewada on September 23. The seat fell vacant after BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi was killed in an IED explosion by Maoists in April. He was campaigning for the BJP Lok Sabha candidate near Nakulnar in Dantewada district.
The outcome of the byelection is crucial for both the Congress and the BJP. While the result will have no bearing on the Congress government’s continuation in the state, it will serve as a referendum of sorts on Bhupesh Baghel’s nine-month-old government. It could go some way in assuaging the humiliating defeat the Congress suffered in the Lok Sabha election in May, winning only two of the 11 seats in the state, after an impressive
show in the assembly election just a few months before. For the BJP, a victory could be another shot in the arm after the general election, and a further avenging of the dismal performance in the assembly election, when it won just 15 of the 90 seats in the state assembly; Dantewada was the only seat the BJP won of the 12 seats in the Bastar region.
The Congress has bet again on the late Mahendra Karma’s wife and former MLA Devati Karma. Karma, the Congress leader who was killed by the Maoists in the May 2013 Jeeram Ghati massacre, was by far the tallest Congress tribal leader in South Chhattisgarh. Devati had lost to Mandavi in the assembly poll, but remained the face of the Congress in Dantewada. She was, in fact, seen as the de facto MLA after Mandavi’s death. Indeed, it would be difficult to find a candidate outside the Karma family for the Congress, given that three of the four sons and two of the five daughters are active in politics. The Congress has already begun strengthening Devati’s hand, allowing her to claim credit for work done in the region.
The BJP, on the other hand, has fielded Mandavi’s widow Ojaswi, in the hope of capitalising on the sympathy vote. Once a civil services aspirant, Ojaswi has education on her side but is perceived as an outsider—she is originally from Kanker district and doesn’t speak Gondi, the native tongue of most tribals in Dantewada. However, the BJP is counting on public disaffection with the Karma family, which is perceived to have cornered many public positions.
The Communist Party of India, which has some sort of a committed vote in the seat, has fielded Bhim Sen and could well be the X factor in the polls. In the 2018 assembly election, the CPI candidate had secured about 12,000 votes, the BSP candidates about 6,000 votes, while Devati’s margin of defeat was about 2,000 votes.
Another bypoll is due at Chitrakoot in the Bastar region, the dates for which have not yet been announced. Chitrakoot Congress MLA Deepak Baij has been elected MP from Kanker. Till then, September 27 will remain a crucial date on the state’s political calendar—the day votes will be counted in Dantewada.
THE CONGRESS IS BACKING THE LATE MAHENDRA KARMA’S WIFE, DEVATI, WHOSE CHANCES SEEM GOOD