Spotlight on farmer issues in Chhattisgarh’s agro-belt
In the three seats going to the polls on April 26, Congress is counting on OBC voters to bag a win, while the ruling BJP has been campaigning on welfare schemes, Ram Mandir and Naxal issue
The results of Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund and Kanker, the three Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh where voting will be held in the second phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 26, will perhaps reect the mood of the farmers in the predominantly rural State.
While the Mahasamund region is home to big and small farmers, Rajnandgaon too has a huge agrobelt. The Kanker seat, which encompasses the Kanker and Balod districts, has a substantial number of farmers in Balod and parts of Kanker. Paddy is the main crop in the Mahanadi basin while Balod and Rajnandgaon are also sugar cane belts.
The seats will be a test for both the BJP, which assumed power in the State a few months ago, as well as the Congress.
The new BJP government has been buying 21 quintals per acre of paddy at ₹3,100 per quintal, and has transferred pending bonus to paddy farmers, ful lling two promises it made in its election manifesto. On the other hand, the Congress, which lost power in 2023 despite promising a higher procurement price and farm loan waiver, has been highlighting its loan-waiver promise yet again.
The Congress is also counting on the Other Backward Class (OBC) voters who form a sizeable chunk of the electorate in all three seats with its social justice pitch and caste census demands, even as it accuses the BJP of trying to change the Constitution.
Holding a rally in Chhattisgarh’s Balod in support of the Congress’s Kanker seat candidate Biresh Thakur on Sunday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi alleged that the BJP-led Central government wanted to change the Constitution and curtail the rights of people. “The Constitution has given you the right to vote, given you reservations, ensured protection of tribal culture and facilitated the development of Dalits. The BJP-led Union government wants to change this Constitution and curtail people’s rights,” she said.
The BJP dismisses these allegations. Speaking to The Hindu, Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao said it was the Congress that has always been misleading people and instilling fear in their minds. “We have been in power for the past 10 years at the Centre. Have we done anything that suggested we would want to change the Constitution? When we abolished Article 370 from the Constitution,
conforming with our ideology, couldn’t we have made other changes to the Constitution if we wanted to? Congress is instilling fear. No one can change the Constitution and the BJP is not going to do so,” says Mr. Sao.
The BJP has also based its campaign on the welfare schemes and the delivery record of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, besides banking on issues like Ram Mandir and Article 370 that it feels appeal to both urban and rural voters.
The party is also banking on issues such as conversions in the tribal belt of Kanker and after two backto-back anti-Naxal operations in Bijapur and Kanker, is also attempting to build a new narrative accusing the Congress of supporting the Naxals.
There are some local caste equations that might also come into play in Mahasamund where former Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu has been elded by the Congress against former MLA Rupkumari Choudhary of the BJP. With the district having a sizeable number of Sahu voters, the Congress is hoping the factor to work for it.
Given that polling in Bastar was held without any violence after a decade, o¨cials are hopeful of a repeat in Kanker.