The Bhartaiya Janata Party (BJP) has registered an empathetic win in the recently concluded Chhattisgarh state assembly elections, where the saffron party led by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has not only dismantled the anti-tribal narrative being propagated against it by the breaking Bharat forces but has also managed to perform well in the Maoist-infested regions.
The performance of the party in the tribal (Janjati/Vanvasi) dominated regions of the state suggests that the party has a major acceptance among the Janjati community, which has firmly aligned with the party’s ideology this time, while its success in the Maoist-affected regions of the state despite the violence unleashed against the party functionaries by the Ultras has proven the tilt of the masses towards development and economic prosperity promised by the PM.
Now that the party has ended its five-year drought in the central Indian state, let’s look at the crucial factors that helped to determine a victory for the Narendra Modi-led party in the recently concluded state assembly elections.
Success in tribal-dominated regions
of the crucial factors behind the massive win of the BJP in Chhattisgarh is that the party has swept the Janjati dominated Sarguja and Jashpur region of Northern Chhattisgarh. The party in the region has won the high profile Bharatpur-Sonhat and Ambikapur seats from where the Union minister of state for tribal affairs, Renuka Singh and BJP candidate Rajesh Agarwal have emerged victorious. Agarwal has defeated the former deputy CM T.S Singhdeo.
The party in the Northern region has won all the sixteen seats including the Baikunthpur, Pratappur, Manendragarh, Samri, Jashpur, Lundra, Kunkri and Pathalgaon constituency. Most of these regions have a significant population of Janajatis, where long standing issues pertaining to conversion and delisting had taken a centre stage before the elections.
The party has also done exceptionally well in the Maoist affected southern regions of the state, where the Janjatis constitutes a significant vote percentage as well. In the Bastar Division, the saffron party has emerged victorious on as many as 7 out of 10 seats. This includes winning the Chitrakot constituency, where the BJP candidate has defeated state Congress president,Deepak Baij. The party has also secured victory from Dantewada, Jagdalpur, Kondagaon and Narayanpur constituencies.
Additionally, the party has also done exceptionally well in the Bijapur and Konta seats where the margin of loss is only around 2500 and 2000 respectively. It is worth mentioning here that the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had run an impressive campaign in the Bastar Division where in between the PM had also inaugurated the Nagarnar steel plant.
PM Narendra Modi during a political rally in ChhattisgarhThe PM in his rallies had time and again asserted that the BJP has been continuously working towards the upliftment of the Janjatis and the community should rally behind the party ignoring all the propaganda being floated around by the breaking Bharat forces.
Charges of corruption on Baghel’s government
Another factor that has possibly contributed immensely in routing of the Congress government is the widespread corruption that flourished under the Baghel’s regime.
The list of charges put up against the Congress government by the BJP includes the Rs 2000 crore liquor scam, coal scam, Public Service Distributor (PSD) scam, allegations of wide-scale nepotism in Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission (CGPSC) and the Gothan scheme scam, against which the BJP has been hitting the streets regularly.
The latest addition to the list is the much-debated ‘Mahadev betting app scam’ in which direct allegations were put up against the Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel.
"मैं हूं महादेव बेटिंग ऐप का मालिक, भूपेश बघेल के कहने पर दुबई गया और मैंने अब तक 508 करोड़ रुपये दिए हैं!"
महादेव बेटिंग एप मामले में छत्तीसगढ़ के मुख्यमंत्री भूपेश बघेल पूरी तरह लिप्त हैं। एप के मालिक शुभम सोनी ने दुबई से वीडियो जारी कर बताई सारी सच्चाई। pic.twitter.com/br5B4ODfj6
— BJP (@BJP4India) November 5, 2023
Anger against the party, government over various issues
Another significant factor that worked in favour of the BJP is the growing anger among the masses towards the Congress party’s stand on various local and national issues such as conversion, communal flare-ups, insult of Sanatana, and illegal settlement of Bangladeshis and Rohangiya immigrants.
There is no if and but that the otherwise peace-loving state has witnessed a surge in cases of illegal conversion promoted by missionaries, love Jihad, settlement of illegal immigrants, and communal flare-ups in the last few years. This includes communal scuffle that occurred in Kawardha, Narayanpur and Biranpur of Bemetara, where a Hindu youth, Bhuvneshwar, was brutally killed by a radical mob.
The incident sparked huge outrage among the people, which ultimately led to the defeat of 7-term Congress MLA, Ravindra Chaubey by Ishwar Sahu, father of the deceased youth Bhuvneshwar Sahu. Similar anger of masses against the local Congress leaders has also been reflected in the elections in other places hit by communal tension, such as Narayanpur and Kawardha.
The sheer anger among the people against the Baghel’s government can also be assessed by the fact that a significant number of ministers, along with the Congress state president, have lost the elections. The list includes heavyweights like TS Singhdeo, Mohammad Akbar, Amarjit Bhagat, Shiv Dahariya, Jay Singh Agarwal, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Rudra Guru and Mohan Markam, all ministers of the Baghel led Congress government.
Administrative failure in containing Maoist violence against civilians
It is to be noted that the current state of left-wing insurgency in the state and the surge in the killings of citizens and political representatives by the Maoists have been one of the most debated issues between the BJP and the Congress party during a long and fierce election campaign in the tribal heartland.
A month before the election, both political streams also got engaged in fierce verbal spat after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the ‘Karyakarta Mahakumbh’ in Bhopal, alleged that the grand old party is now being run by a few ‘Urban Naxals’, a term generally referred to the urban handlers of the Maoist outfit in Bharat.
Later on, Sambit Patra, the national spokesperson of the BJP in a press briefing held at New Delhi alleged that the Congress party is walking side by side with the Naxals (Maoist) and has inspired the ultras for the killing of the functionaries of BJP.
However, contrary to the claims of BJP, the former Chief Minister, Bhupesh Baghel, has claimed on a couple of occasions in the past few months that Maoist activities have slowed down effectively during the tenure of his Government.
Despite the claims made by the Chief Minister, sadly, the state of affairs pertaining to left-wing extremism in the State has been a different story in the recent few years. If we take the figures of last year alone reported in different digital platforms, more than 30 civilians, including a number of political representatives, have been brutally killed by the ultras for allegedly harming the cause of the banned Maoist outfit in the State.
BJP president J P Nadda and former Chief minister Raman Singh at Saagar Sahu house in Narayanpur
Most of these men killed by the ultras were from humble backgrounds; a number of them were innocent farmers or youths who have been alleged by the Naxals to being informers, while the others were political workers associated with the saffron outfit.
It is pertinent to mention here that the killings of civilians have always been part and parcel of the struggle between security forces and the Maoists. Nevertheless, the surge in targeted killings of civilians along with the targeted killings of the political workers of the BJP in recent times has ultimately created a perception among the masses that the Ultras have possibly taken sides in the state assembly elections.
In all, to conclude, it will not be an exaggeration to say that the routing of the Congress party from Chhattisgarh is possibly the sheer outcome of collective resentment of the masses towards the alleged corruption and insensitivity shown by the government and minister on significant issues such as growing menace of conversion, demographic changes, and incompetence to contain left-wing violence being unleashed towards civilians and political representatives supporting the democratic values.
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