Months after dropping the Meeting polls, the Congress entered the Lok Sabha ballot ring in Chhattisgarh to place that loss behind it and enhance on its 2019 tally of two seats. 4 constituencies in Chhattisgarh voted within the first two phases and the remaining seven will go to the polls on Tuesday. These are Raipur, the state capital, Bilaspur, Korba, Durg, the SC-reserved Janjgir-Champa, and the 2 ST-reserved seats of Raigarh and Sarguja.
The uphill activity that awaits the Congress is encapsulated by the truth that the BJP received 10 of the 11 Lok Sabha seats within the 2004, 2009 and 2014 elections and even after dropping the Meeting polls in 2018 it managed to win 9 of the 11 constituencies final time round.
The BJP’s marketing campaign was closely depending on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed rallies in Janjgir-Champa and Sarguja, and Union House Minister Amit Shah, who addressed rallies in Korba, Janjgir-Champam and Bemetara (for the Durg seat). For the Congress, its former president Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally in Bilaspur and Priyanka Gandhi spoke at a public assembly in Chirmiri (for Korba).
Of those seven seats, an in depth contest is anticipated in Korba and Janjgir-Champa. Within the latter, a primarily agrarian constituency that the BJP has held since 2004, farmers have benefitted from the insurance policies of the previous Congress authorities and the Opposition social gathering presently controls all eight Meeting segments.
Right here, the Congress has fielded its prime Scheduled Caste (SC) chief and former minister Shivkumar Dahariya, who misplaced his Meeting seat final yr. To make sure there isn’t a anti-incumbency, the BJP dropped its sitting MP Guharam Ajgalley and gave the ticket to Kamlesh Jangde, a former sarpanch. As in 2019, when the BJP beat the Congress by 83,255 votes, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) — which received 1.31 lakh votes — will play a vital function this time.
In Korba, the Congress’s Jyotsna Mahant is defending her seat in opposition to BJP’s state vice-president Saroj Pandey, a former MP in each homes of Parliament. Jyotsna is the spouse of Congress Chief of Opposition Charan Das Mahant. Often called Chhattisgarh’s energy capital and industrial hub, Korba’s greatest drawback is air and water air pollution attributable to coal mining, with dams for the fly ash from coking coal remaining under-utilised. Each candidates have additionally promised to resolve Korba’s poor railway connectivity. One other main situation is the deforestation of the sacred Hasdeo grove.
Among the many seats that the BJP is hoping to bag comfortably are city Raipur and tribal Sarguja. Within the state capital, it has by no means misplaced since 1996 and its candidate is eight-time MLA and five-time minister Brijmohan Agrawal. In opposition to him, the Congress has fielded youth chief and former MLA Vikas Upadhyay.
In Sarguja, which BJP has by no means misplaced since 2004, it received all eight Meeting segments, in addition to all 14 segments within the area within the Meeting polls. Its candidate Chintamani Maharaj is a Congress turncoat who joined the BJP a month earlier than the state elections after being denied a ticket. His identify had additionally cropped up within the Enforcement Directorate (ED) coal levy corruption case, for accepting kickbacks. After Maharaj’s identify was not included within the listing of accused within the ED’s FIR that named different Congress leaders, the Congress alleged he had been “washed in BJP’s washer after he switched sides”.
Maharaj faces Congress youth chief Shashi Singh, the daughter of former state minister Tuleshwar Singh. BJP employees within the constituency had been upset that the ticket was given to a brand new entrant to the social gathering. The one silver lining for the Congress, none of whose prime leaders barring T S Singh Deo campaigned in Sarguja, is the 20-year anti-incumbency going through the BJP.
Chhattisgarh in numbers
(Supply: state Chief Electoral Officer)
The opposite seats at stake
Since 1996, the Congress has managed to win Durg simply as soon as — through the Modi wave of 2014 — when Tamradhwaj Sahu bagged it. In 2019, BJP’s Vijay Baghel, the estranged nephew of former Congress CM Bhupesh Baghel, received by a large 3.92 lakh votes. Vijay, who wrote the BJP’s 2023 Meeting ballot manifesto, is amongst two candidates repeated by the BJP this time. The Congress, which is banking on Sahu votes, has fielded Rajendra Sahu who has led Bhupesh Baghel’s ballot campaigns up to now.
In Bilaspur, Congress has fielded two-time MLA Devendra Yadav, who received final yr’s Meeting election by a wafer-thin margin of 1,264 votes, in opposition to the BJP’s former MLA Tokhan Sahu. Yadav is amongst these whose identify cropped up within the coal levy case.
In the meantime, the BJP has by no means misplaced the Raigarh seat since 1999, with CM Vishnu Deo Sai profitable the seat 4 consecutive occasions from 1999 to 2014. Gomati Sai, who received the seat in 2019, is now a BJP MLA. This time, the social gathering has fielded grassroots employee Radheshyam Rathiya in opposition to the Congress’s Dr Menka Devi Singh, whose father Naresh Chandra was the final king of the erstwhile Sarangarh kingdom and a minister in undivided MP.