Chhattisgarh Poll : How Chhattisgarh Will Vote? (image-twitter/ECISVEEP)
In two days, Chhattisgarh will go for the next phase of its crucial poll on November 17. The political parties have intensified their efforts to woo the voters. The first phase of the poll was completed on November 7.
Currently, the state is under the governance of Congress with Bhupesh Baghel as the chief minister. The party has won most of the seats last year. The tenure of the Chhattisgarh assembly is scheduled to end on January 3, 2024. The counting will take place and results will be announced on December 3.
The two main parties in the fray are the ruling party Congress and the opposition BJP. The other parties that contest the elections are Aam Aadmi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Janata Congress.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has expressed confidence that they will win more than 75 seats in the Assembly election this year. Chhattisgarh is relatively a new state, with only four Assembly elections under its belt. The first one was held in 2003. The fight was mainly between the BJP, Congress, with parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party, the National Congress Party and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh bagging between one to three seats.
Different strategies are being played out by the ruling as well as BJP to woo the voters. The Congress had made a big announcement ahead of the second phase of polling in Chhattisgarh. They have announced to give Rs 15,000 for women as annual financial assistance if it returns to power. And the amount will be directly transferred to the bank accounts under the ‘Chhatisgarah Gruha Lakshmi Yojana’ scheme. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a rally in the Mungeli district has said that Congress will cheat the people and will not fulfill the promises made to them.
The Chhattisgarh has recently witnessed a close contest, with a vote share gap of 0.7 per cent to 2.6 per cent between 2003 to 2013. Though BJP managed to win three consecutive elections in 2003, 2008 and 2013, the vote share lead had been very low. There has been a decline in its lead from 2.6 per cent to 0.7 per cent, reports India today.
The strength of the Congress lies in the support of Scheduled Tribes. The party has facilitated OBC leadership in the state, with leaders like Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and Tamradhwaj Sahu. This has severely dented a core BJP vote-bank.
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The congress party has also let down 22 MLA’s out of its current strength of 71 by denying the election tickets. This may help the party neutralise the angst against the party in these seats. Though most of the pollsters predict Congress victory, BJP is expected to do better than its 2018 performance and this will turn out to be a battle for supremacy. Meanwhile, the Congress has failed to impress the electorate when it comes to inflation, unemployment and fighting corruption in the state.
Another drawback faced by the BJP is the acute fall in support for the BJP during the assembly elections compared to general elections. As per the data provided by the Wire, BJP average is only 39% while in general election it boosts closer to 50%. While, for Congress, it remains quite steady with 40% irrespective of the type.
Baghel has tried to focus mainly on Chattisgarhi identity and soft Hindutva to maintain the Congress’s goodwill and is promising a caste survey in the state where SC/ST and OBCS are over 70%. While BJP has sticked on to corruption claims against Congress. Both the parties have promised a lot of giveaways so that is unlikely to be a major deciding factor.
