RAIPUR: The BJP, which claimed to have dealt a body blow to the Maoists in Chhattisgarh in the run-up to the assembly elections, couldn’t find favour with voters in regions considered strongholds of the Leftwing ultras. What was fairly evident from the trends on counting day was that voters inhabiting the Naxal hotbeds in the state gave an emphatic vote of no confidence to the BJP, which ruled the state for 15 years.
While the Congress nearly made a clean sweep of the Bastar zone in south Chhattisgarh, winning 11 of the 12 assembly seats, in the 6 assembly segments in Rajnandgaon district, the BJP nominees couldn’t win a single seat other than outgoing chief minister Raman Singh.
Both Bastar and Rajnandgaon, considered rebel strongholds, went to polls in the first phase on November 12. The outcome in Bastar and Rajnandgaon was fairly similar to how the BJP fared in the other Naxal-affected districts such as Gariyaband, Sarguja (north Chhattisgarh) and Masasamund, among others.
According to officials estimates, as many as 14 of the 27 districts of Chhattisgarh are infested by Maoists.
The Congress turned the tables on the BJP, which was battling anti-incumbency in the run-up to the polls, bagging 68 seats. BJP’s tally dropped to 15, while Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) bagged 7 seats in the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly.
Poor harvest
While the Congress nearly made a clean sweep of the Bastar zone, winning 11 of the 12 assembly seats, in the 6 assembly segments in Rajnandgaon district, the BJP also fared dismally