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 general election on April 26, will perhaps reflect 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 agro-belt. 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 sugarcane belts.
Such a scenario will test both the Bharatiya Janata Party, 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, fulfilling 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 sizable 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 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.
In Rajnandgaon, for instance, where the Congress has fielded former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, many BJP supporters dub it as a “former CM versus current PM” contest, referring to Mr. Modi’s popularity and “guarantees”. The BJP is repeating its sitting MP Santosh Pandey who won by a substantial margin here the last time.
The party is also banking on issues such as conversions in the tribal belt of Kanker and after two back-to-back anti-Naxal operations in Bijapur and Kanker, is also attempting to build a new narrative accusing the Congress of supporting the Naxals.
Addressing an election rally in Chhhattisgarh’s Kabirdham district [part of the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat], the party’s star campaigner and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday claimed that the Congress stood for “scams, terrorism and Naxalism”.
“The word ‘Congress’ is a synonym for scams, terrorism and Naxalism. At an age when tablet computers and good books should be in the hands of youth and they should have the spirit to take on the world, the Congress handed pistols to those youth. The Congress instigated them to fight against the country in the name of Naxalism and terrorism,” Mr. Adityanath claimed.
There are some local caste equations that might also come into play in Mahasamund where former Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu has been fielded by the Congress against former MLA Rupkumari Choudhary of the BJP. The Congress is also banking on the sizeable number of Sahu voters in the district.
From a security point of view, say police officers, this election will be easier to manage as poll dates are different for the two Naxal-affected areas - Bastar voted on April 19 while Kanker will go to polls on April 26. Given that polling in Bastar was held without any violence after a decade, election officials are hopeful of a repeat in Kanker.
