With billions of voters exercising their voting rights in a marathon exercise stretching over months, the great Indian general election has finally been wrapped up with the return of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre.
Though the mandate given by the people to the incumbent NDA government is comparatively weaker than what it secured in the last two elections, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) itself had secured a thumping majority, nevertheless, the alliance has managed to secure a comfortable majority with around 290 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
Digging further, its vivid that although a few states has given a weaker mandate to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led coalition in the recently concluded elections, there are others who have rallied behind the “Modi Ki Guarantees”.
One of such high performing states for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led party is the state of Chhattisgarh, where the BJP has emerged victorious on 10 out of 11 seats, showering their faith at the incumbent government. Here are the details of the contests that unfolded in the Central Indian state where the BJP has improved its tally from the previous election.
Victory on 10 out of the 11 seats
The BJP has once again defended its fortress of Chhattisgarh in the Lok Sabha polls, winning all the seats with the exception of much hyped Korba Lok Sabha seats, where the Indian National Congress candidate, Jyotsana Charandas Mahant, has once again clinched a comfortable victory by defeating BJP’s Saroj Pandey.
देश-प्रदेश में भाजपा की ऐतिहासिक विजय पर प्रदेश कार्यालय कुशाभाऊ ठाकरे परिसर में भाजपा नेताओं और कार्यकर्ताओं संग जीत के जश्न में शामिल हुआ और सबको हार्दिक बधाई एवं शुभकामनाएं दी।
इस शानदार जीत में अपना महती योगदान देने वाले प्रदेश के लाखों-लाखों कार्यकर्ताओं का सहृदय आभार… pic.twitter.com/SKilEYl4Pe
— Vishnu Deo Sai (@vishnudsai) June 4, 2024
Mahant, a senior leader of the Congress party and wife of former Union Minister and leader of opposition in the state assembly, Charan Das Mahant, has defeated BJP stalwart Pandey with an impressive margin of over 43000 votes.
This is the second consecutive victory for Mahant, as she had also emerged victorious in the 2019 election from the power city constituency.
Domination continues on tribal dominated seats
Though, apart from losing the Korba Lok Sabha seat, BJP has performed exceptionally well in all the remaining seats of the state, including on all four Scheduled Tribes (ST) reserved seats.
Banking on the welfare schemes initiated by the Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, the only CM of the state belonging to the tribal (Adivasi/Janjati) community, BJP has won all four tribal reserved seats of Surguja, Raigarh, Kanker and Bastar.
Surguja: – In the tribal heartland of Surguja, a region close to the hometown of CM Vishnu Deo Sai, the BJP has fielded Chintamani Maharaj, a former leader of the Congress party who had only joined the saffron outfit a few months before the Lok Sabha polls.
Maharaj has defeated the INC candidate, Sashi Singh Koram, with an impressive margin of over 64000 votes. The BJP victory here signifies the augmenting hold of the party in the Surguja Anchal earlier considered as a bastion of Congress given that it has been the home town of senior Congress leader and foemer Deputy CM, T.S Singh Deo.
Bastar: – The Lok Sabha constituency of Bastar has been in news for various reasons, including the impact of the Maoist insurgency on the seat, which encompasses remote and unexplored terrain of Dandkaranya forests.
The tribal dominated seat was won by the INC in the general elections of 2019 when the incumbent state chief of the party, Deepak Baij had emerged victorious. This time the congress party has fielded Kawasi Lakhma, former minister and MLA from the prestigious seat.
Known for stoking controversies at times, Lakhma is considered a heavy weight in Bastar given his reach in the tribal community, however the Congress leader has been defeated by the BJP candidate Mahesh Kashyap who has secured a victory over the former with a margin of 55k votes.
बस्तर लोकसभा प्रत्याशी श्री महेश कश्यप जी को प्रचंड मतों से विजयी होने पर हार्दिक बधाई एवं शुभकामनाएं..🚩🚩🚩#ModiKaParivar #kedar_kashyap_bjp #बस्तर pic.twitter.com/8taj2vuS1p
— Kedar Kashyap (@KedarKashyapBJP) June 4, 2024
Raigarh: – In Raigarh, another Scheduled Tribes (ST) reserved seat in the state, BJP candidate Radheshyam Rathiya has pulled up a massive victory over its opponent INC candidate, Dr. Menka Devi Singh, a scion of the royal family with a difference of over 2,40000 votes.
Kanker: – One of the most tightly fought contest in the state was on the Kanker Lok Sabha seat where the BJP candidate, Bhojraj Nag, defeated the INC candidate, Brijesh Thakur with a margin as less as 1884 votes.
Nag, a priest from the Baiga community widely known for his work against the illegal conversion in the area is a popular figure among the masses. He was one of the few attendees from the state who was invited in the consecration ceremony of Bhagwan Sri Ram in Ayodhya on January 22 this year.
High profile seat of Rajnandgaon and Raipur
One of the most high-profile seats of the state was Rajnandgaon, where Congress leader and former CM, Bhupesh Baghel was in the fray with BJP’s Santoshi Pandey. Baghel, who earlier lost his CM’s post following a profound victory of the BJP in the state assembly elections, lost by a margin of around 44k votes.
The defeat of Baghel comes on the heels of allegation labelled by him pertaining to alleged change of the EVM’s number, which was sharply refuted by the Chief Electoral Officer as baseless.
Meanwhile, in the Raipur Lok Sabha constituency, another high-profile seat in the state, incumbent minister in the Sai’s government and senior BJP leader, Brijmohan Agarwal, has pulled up a grand victory.
Agarwal who is up against the INC candidate, Vikas Upadhyah, has defeated the latter with a whopping margin of over 5.75 lakh votes. Agarwal is currently the Minister for Education, Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism in the state government.
Other seats
Further the Prime Minister Modi led party in the state has also clinched victory in the Mahasamund, Bilaspur, Durg and Janjgir Champa constituencies of the state, grabbing 10 out of the 11 seats of the state.
In the Other Backward Caste (OBC)-dominated seat of Mahasamund, INC candidate and former Home Minister of the state, Tamradhwaj Sahu was locking horns with the BJP’s Roop Kumar Chaudhary, Sahu was defeated by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
In Durg Lok Sabha constituency, BJP candidate and incumbent Member of Parliament, Vijay Baghel, has also registered a comfortable victory against his opponent, Rajendra Sahu.
Baghel, who had also won the Durg seat in the year 2019 with a margin of over 3 lakh votes, has secured his victory over Sahu this time with an impressive margin of over 4 lakh votes.
Meanwhile, in the Lok Sabha constituency of Bilaspur, the judicial capital of the state, INC candidate and heavyweight Devendra Yadav lost to BJP candidate Tokhan Sahu, who has emerged victorious with a vote difference of over 1.64 lakh.
Lastly, in the Scheduled Caste (SC) Reserve seat of Janjgir Champa, BJP candidate, Kamlesh Jangade has comfortably defeated INC candidate Dr. Shiv Kumar Dahariya by a margin of 60k votes.
Notably, it was while campaigning for Dahariya that the Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge, compared him to Bhagwan Shiva while stating that the former can compete with Ram equally as he is Shiva.
