NEW DELHI: The Congress hopes its political fortunes in Chhattisgarh will spill over to neighbouring Odisha where the next Assembly elections are likely to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.
The party’s strategists hope to bring in Odisha’s farmers by wooing them with the Chhattisgarh government’s new land return policy, farm loan waiver and its policy of an increased Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops.
The second factor is that earlier the BJP, which ruled Chhattisgarh, would often use its influence in the Odisha local body polls in the tribal areas along the border. That situation changed last year.
“We hope to gain from the Chhattisgarh win as there a lot of similarities in the demography,” AICC general secretary in charge of Odisha Jitendra Singh said. The new policy initiatives were part of the Chhattisgarh manifesto the party drafted after extensive consultations in tribal strongholds.