Local dynamics play a major part in Chhattisgarh election
In third phase, seven constituencies in the State go to the polls with BJP and Congress as main players; while ruling party banks on Ram Temple, hyperlocal issues, Opposition party seeks to improve its record using schemes, social justice plank
Nationalism as a narrative has been dominant here, but both parties have tried to add more issues to the mix
Chhattisgarh will see its seven remaining seats out of the total 11 go to the polls in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 7. In these constituencies, nationalism as a narrative has been dominant, but both the key players — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress — have attempted to add more issues in the mix.
While the BJP has tried to focus on topics such as the Ram Temple, abrogation of Article 370 and India’s “relative rise” globally with hyper-local issues such as corruption allegations against the previous Congress government and the purported success of its schemes such as the Mahtari Vandan Yojana, the Congress hopes to improve its patchy electoral record in the Lok Sabha polls with schemes such as providing ₹1 lakh annually for eligible families and a social justice plank that the party is attempting elsewhere in the country.
Seats such as Bilaspur, Durg, Surguja and Raigarh have been with the BJP for the past couple of decades.
Raigarh, a constituency reserved for tribal people, is where the BJP’s Radeshyam Rathia is taking on Menaka Devi Singh of the Congress. Ms. Singh comes from the Sarangarh royal family and her father Nareshchandra Singh was a noted gure in undivided Madhya Pradesh, even serving as the Chief Minister.
This election, however, is drawing attention for reasons beyond the candidates themselves. First, Raigarh has been represented four times by current Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai of the BJP.
CM’s constituency
Apart from its billing as the “Chief Minister’s constituency”, O.P. Choudhary, a powerful Minister in the Sai Cabinet, also hails from Raigarh as does Devendra Pratap Singh, a member of the erstwhile Raigarh State royal family and who was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha as BJP nominee. The party is also condent about Raigarh and Surguja (another reserved constituency for STs) due to its performance in last year’s Assembly polls where it swept the Surguja region, winning all 14 seats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a public meeting in Surguja last month in which he reiterated his government’s “commitment to tribal welfare”.
From an electoral record point of view, JanjgirChampa, a constituency reserved for the Scheduled Castes, is on another extreme. Here, the Congress won all the Assembly segments in last year’s State elections and has now elded former Minister Shiv Kumar Dahariya against the BJP’s Kamlesh Jangde. Though the BJP has been consistently winning this seat since 2004, the Congress feels that its social justice plank might provide it an opening here.
In neighbouring Korba, sitting MP Jyotsna Mahant has been renominated by the Congress. Observers, however, believe that by elding Saroj Pandey, a senior State leader from the BJP, the party has given itself a better chance than what it had in the previous election.
And while Korba is the pocket borough of Charan Das Mahant, Ms. Mahant’s husband and the Leader of Opposition in the Chhattisgarh Assembly, the MP herself is facing some questions due to her limited visits to the constituency, say sources on the ground.
Major urban pockets such as capital Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg, where the BJP has traditionally done well and almost swept the Assembly polls, are also going to the polls in this phase. It is in Raipur that Brijmohan Agrawal, State Minister and a veteran with around three decades of experience in the Assembly, is contesting a Lok Sabha election for the rst time and is up against Vikas Upadhyay, a former one-time MLA.
Former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel — who was focusing on Rajnandgaon where he is the candidate and where polling was held in the second phase — has now been more active in other seats. Despite his contesting a di§erent seat, his shadow looms large in his home turf of Durg where the BJP has elded sitting MP Vijay Baghel — who lost to his relative, former CM Mr. Baghel from Patan Assembly segment last November — and is said to be ahead of Rajendra Sahu, his opponent from the Congress.
In Bilaspur, the BJP has nominated Tokhan Sahu as its candidate, while Devendra Yadav is the candidate from the Congress, but the former is reliant on the face of Mr. Modi to maintain its winning record.