Chhattisgarh: BJP holds an edge over Congress

Six states go to polls in the next few weeks to elect a new Assembly and Chhattisgarh is first off the mark.

Altogether 380 candidates are testing their electoral fortunes from 39 constituencies spread across eight district where polling is scheduled for November 14. There are 939 candidates in the fray for 90 seats.

Campaigning for the first phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly elections ended at 1700 hrs IST pm on Wednesday. The second phase of polls is on November 20. The state came into being in 2000 and at 32 per cent has the largest concentration of scheduled tribes in India.

The tribal vote is wooed by main parties with promises of free gifts. Chief Minister Raman Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party made an offer to make available the staple food rice at Rs three a kilogram, Congress knew that it could not hope to win with just the anti-incumbency vote so it offered rice at Rs two a kg.

Not to be outdone in its own domain, BJP says that if voted to power again, they will offer rice at Re one a kilogram. BJP has the advantage of having delivered on the promise of Rs three a kg.

The Chief Minister makes it a point to contest from a different constituency each time. This year it is Rajanandgaon. His busy schedules at the helm of the state's affairs have allowed him little interaction with the constituency but his wife Beena Singh battles it out for him there.

The sitting MLA of Rajanandgaon, Uday Mudaliar feels that the absence of the rival will benefit him. Meanwhile, Naxal terror continues as Maoists boycott the polls, claim lives through violence and continue to plague the Bastar region.

Is the Naxal problem neglected by the mainstream parties?

Will Raman Singh be able to emulate his role model Narendra Modi and win a second term in office?

Or will Congress' Ajit Jogi be able to turn the voting tide to his favour with the tribal base?

CNN-IBN's show Battle for the states: Chhattisgarh special featured Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Congress MP and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, CNN-IBN's correspondent Hemender Singh from Rajanandgaon in Chhattisgarh and and National Affairs Editor Diptosh Majumdar. The discussion was moderated by senior editor Sagarika Ghose.

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In the last Assembly elections in the state that were held in 2003, the BJP had marched to victory with a comfortable 40 per cent vote share as against Congress' 37 per cent. With 50 seats to Congress' 37 and three going to others, the BJP was easily past the halfway mark.

The first question was: Is Raman Singh the Narendra Modi of Chhattisgarh?

Who wants to be Narendra Modi!

Diptosh Majumdar asked Singh, whether Modi was his role model.

"Modiji has shown how the development plank can lead to victory. He has personally done a lot for Gujarat and put the state in the list of the most progressive states of the country. Of course, he is a role model, not just for me, but also for all the chief ministers in the nation," said Singh.

Majumdar expressed, "Singh had known that he was to be the face of the campaign and had toured all the constituencies in April. His detailed study of the candidates resulted in understanding the pulse of the people and who among the legislators was not preferred by the voters. He allocated tickets to 44 new candidates in 90 seats. That's a major achievement for Raman Singh."

Sagarika felt that this was an enactment of the Gujarat model.

CNN-IBN correspondent Hemender Singh reporting from Rajanandgaon said that an atmosphere of fear did prevail over the state. The places that go to poll in the first phase are tribal belts and the Maoists have been carrying out their threats at regular intervals.

They have killed two BJP workers and another belonging to the Congress. The Maoists have threatened to chop off the hands of voters if they dared to go out to vote.

So it promises to be a battle between the security forces and the rebels without causes, the Maoists.

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Where are the young guns?

Diptosh had pointed out that the Congress has not declared who will be chief minister if they win. The party has been clubbing images of Rahul Gandhi with Motilala Vohra and with Vidya Charan Shukla.

These are veterans and Ajit Jogi too has been confined to the wheel chair.

The BJP has far more dynamic leaders. Has the Congress run dry of notable leaders?

Singhvi pointed out that while Sagarika could point out at least four leaders from the Congress off hand, there were none in the BJP beyond Raman Singh.

But Majumdar pointed out that eminent Congress leader like Shyama Charan Shukla was dead, while Vidya Charan Shukla and Motilala Vohra were more than 80 years old. Moreover, with Jogi confined to the wheel chair, who is the chief ministerial candidate for the Congress?

"Congress tradition does not allow disclosing state chief in advance," offered Singhvi adding that they were not about to change that due to media pressure of competition.

Majumdar countered Singhvi saying it was an outdated tradition.

Not to be outdone, Singhvi said that the assortment of Congress candidates in the state are a mix of ability, experience and age that the BJP cannot boast of.

Majumdar observed that the Congress has simply failed to build young leaders and their veteran and tired leaders had been camping in Delhi to get tickets for their children.

To bring out this, Majumdar stated the example of Motilal Vohra trying to get a ticket for son Arun Vohra and VC Shukla like wise for nephew Amitesh Shukla.

"This is an election in which tired war horses are fighting the election for the Congress, while Raman Singh does not have to fight this problem of plenty!" said Majumdar.

Majumdar also grilled Raman Singh by asking him if he was not actually buying votes with the promised rice-scheme.

"This scheme is only a modification of the older one. We saw that the poorest 36 lakh families really needed the rice at Re one a kg and we shall give the other 24 lakh families rice at Re two a kg. It will cost me marginally more while these families can really lift themselves," said Raman Singh.

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Nelson's eye to the people's issues and Naxal problems

Sagarika Ghose felt that people's issues and the Naxal problems seemed to have been swept under the carpet. She pointed out that on the one hand Congress MLA from Dantewada, Mahendra Karma is known as the founder of the Salwa Judum, the people's armed front against the Naxals but on the other hand Jogi says he is anti-Salwa Judum.

So the Congress has conflicting voices of a people's issue.

Singhvi said that Supreme Court has ruled that Salwa Judum cannot take the place of the government's initiative against Naxals. The two leaders have a complete freedom of expression. But the law and order is in the state's domain. If the state has failed to curtail violence, it is the failure of the state government.

Majumdar pointed out that for over a year, the state chief has been saying that there is no uniform law and help from the Home Ministry is virtually lacking to tackle the Naxal menace.

Singhvi said that this was a classic case of passing the buck. Whenever the state has asked for a particular unit, the Centre has provided more than the requisitioned amount. "After all this aid, he (Raman Singh of BJP) cannot say that I will not do the job," said Singhvi.

Fact is that, around 50,000 tribals who are associated with Salwa Judum, an anti-Naxal movement, will be provided with special polling booths set up by the Election Commission in their camps to vote on Friday in the Maoist-infested Dantewada district.

They have fought tooth and nail and even faced family displacement and are currently put up in around two dozen government-run makeshift relief camps in the violence-torn districts.

Sagarika pointed out that Raman Singh will have to field the question of why the state's human rights record was tainted.

Binayak Sen, who many believe is innocent, languishes behind bars. Violence is growing and the Salwa Judum is giving a bad image to the state.

Raman Singh said that as an able administrator, he could not ignore the problem and leave the people to the wolves. People's security could not be allowed to be hijacked by the terrorising outfits. He refused to accept that he has done nothing or little in the Naxal problem.

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Cause defeated, people disillusioned?

Sagarika underlined the fact that Chhattisgarh has 32 per cent Scheduled Tribes, the largest concentration of tribals in India. It had been carved out to give a platform to the tribals in the belt and to safeguard their interests. But the state's legislature comprises of very few names from the strata. So is it a cause defeated? Tribal issues therefore have suffered at the hands of the mainstream politicians.

Majumdar dusted out the name of a tribal leader from the Congress, called Arvind Netam. Over the years Netam has fallen to the wayside over time. Tribal issues have definitely suffered, he added.

Low incomes, low health indicators and lack of development has plagued the state. Are the mainstream parties too busy with other things to look at the development issues?

Here's where Majumdar's keen study of the region threw up interesting facts.

"When the BJP had come to power, they had inherited a very bad economic scenario. And that has partly been improved under the Raman Singh government in the past five years," provided Majumdar quoting economists and experts.

But it is still far away from the desired goal. Are the tribals being cheated of the rightful development?

Raman Singh said that the state still held pride in its massive tribal population and 44 per cent forest cover.

“We have helped the culture to stay intact. When we design schemes we look at the most backward areas and plan accordingly. We have given educational institutes and development catalysts to those areas. Rice and foodgrains cannot make or break elections, but work done can stand in good stead. I can say with a guarantee that the work we have done will reflect in the way people will vote us to power again,” said Raman Singh.

Senior editor Sagarika Ghose rounded off the debate by wondering aloud whether development will really be a way of life in Chhattisgarh after the elections or will only political parties win the election!