R Krishna Das
Until last one month, no psephologist has predicted that the BJP will trounce Congress and return to power in Chhattisgarh.
In a landslide victory, BJP is all set to bag 54 seats in the 90-member Chhattisgarh Legislature Assembly and form the government again after a gap of five years. The party has ruled Chhattisgarh for 15 years till 2018 and faced a humiliating defeat that Congress has now tasted with the counting of votes for the state assembly elections held today. Congress is set to get 35 seats; almost half it presently holds.
Now, what played spoilsport to Congress’ plan to return the power? Above all, people’s mindset who saw BJP as an option against the Congress. The vote share of Congress remained intact while the others like Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) reported a drop. The party has polled around 7 per cent in the 2018 state elections. The Janta Congress Chhattisgarh’s share has been confined to just 1.22 per cent, hinting that the split went to BJP’s kitty instead of Congress as expected. BJP’s vote share has increased to over 46 per cent.
The surprising electoral outcome in Chhattisgarh is also the result of a meticulously planned strategy of the BJP managers. Before the election process started, the party has signalled that it is losing Chhattisgarh and created an impression in the Congress camps that the party is not going to contest the polls seriously.
In the last one month, the BJP went in an aggressive mode and left no room for the Congress to counter. Ironically, Rs 12000 of BJP for the married women annually outshined Rs 15,000 announced by the Congress. By the time Congress could come into action, BJP had penetrated deep and succeeded in influencing the women voters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took the lead to grill Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel leading the Congress government in Chhattisgarh. He hit where it hurt more and raked up all sensitive issues that included the alleged scams.
Never in India’s history major scams right from Bofors to Spectrum have swayed the common men until and unless it has been propagated and publicized well. Mode very well knows where to hit. In almost all the election meetings held in Chhattisgarh, he aggressively raised the issues of irregularities in Public Service Commission (PSC) exams, coal scam, liquor scam and online betting.
It facilitated the BJP to pull all sections of the society including youths and elite. The party delivered in the last one month while Congress was completely stumped. The BJP started hitting the Congress at a time it was desperately exercising to keep its house in order. The ticket distribution flared up dissident activities in the party that assumed alarming proportions after mass disciplinary action against leaders. The Congress could not tackle on two fronts—dealing with the BJP and the rivals within the party.
The political pundits hinted at severe sabotage. For, many heavyweights in the Congress were not in a position to face humiliating defeat.
