The growing activities of Naxalites has emerged as one of the major issues in the Chhattisgarh polls with the BJP and its main rival Congress putting this in the poll manifesto.
While the BJP has announced that the party will support ‘Salwa judum’, the Congress maintains that it will firmly deal with the ultras once it comes to power.
However, by killing two senior BJP leaders including the vice-president of the Dantewada district Ramesh Rathore on Sunday at Chhote Gudara, the ultras have made it clear that they mean business.
The ultras also created a reign of terror in Antagarh assembly constituency in Jagdalpur district by ransacking the offices of both the Congress and BJP. The Naxalites have given a call for election boycott and are trying to disrupt the campaign process. “We are not afraid of the Naxalites and have made it clear in our manifesto,”Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP national secretary in charge of Chhattisgarh, told this correspondent.
“The party has lost 26 senior leaders in Naxalite violence since Chhatisgarh state was carved out,” he said, adding that the morale of the party leaders has not been affected by this. “We are fighting the polls and campaigning everywhere despite the Naxalite threat,” he said.
“The ultras have targeted us because we are flouting their directives,” he said.
In fact, in Dantewada district all the main line parties — Congress, BJP and CPI — have started hectic campaigning despite the boycott call. OPCC spokesman Rabindra Shukla said that increase in Naxalite violence is an issue. The party is, however, divided on Salwa judum , he said.
Despite the threat of Naxalite violence all parties are, however, busy in electioneering as the first phase polls is only a couple of days away.
Rajnandgaon
RAJNANDGAON is the third assembly constituency from which Chief Minister Raman Singh is contesting polls. This has given the Congress an issue in the election campaign against Singh.
“He is a ‘bhagode’ (one who runs away) chief minister, do not vote for him” is the Congress election slogan in the election.
Singh made his debut in the state assembly in Madhya Pradesh from Kabardha Assembly constituency in Rajnandgaon district in 1990. In the next elections in 1993, he won from the same constituency. However, he lost in 1998 from Kabardha and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rajnandgaon in 1999.
After he returned as the state BJP president in 2003, he led the party to victory in the Assembly elections in the first polls of the Chhatisgarh state. He changed the constituency to Dungargaon and won in a by-election after becoming the chief minister.
This time he has switched to the adjacent constituency, Rajnandgaon.
However, Singh has a tough task ahead as he is pitted against Congress strongman Uday Mudaliar who has represented the constituency twice, in 1993 and 2003. Congress expects that Mudaliar will spring a surprise by defeating the chief minister as he is well acquainted with the voters in the constituency.
The slogan of ‘Vikash Purush’ coined by the BJP for Singh is a hollow one, Goutam Shukla, Congress leader and one of the campaign managers of Mudaliar said. Where is the development in Rajnandgaon, he asked and added that whatever development has been is only due to Mudaliar who has been nursing the constituency for the last nearly 20 years.
The BJP is, however, not much perturbed over the Congress campaign. In fact, Singh has so far not visited the constituency for the campaign and left it to his election managers to do the job. Party managers said that he would come to the constituency towards the end.
There are not many issues to campaign against the Chief Minister.
Corruption as an election plank against Singh will also not hold much water as was evident from Congress campaign. There are no corruption charges against him, but he is leading a team of corrupt ministers, Shukla said.
For the electorate, however, Rajnandgaon has seen development during the last five years, be it for Singh or for Mudaliar as the Congress claims.
But there is an undercurrent among the voters that the constituency will turn a VIP one, the Chief Minister is elected from here.
Raipur
With only a few days left for the first phase polls, political atmosphere is hotting up with the Bharatiya Janata Party leaving no stone unturned to come to power for the second time while the Congress is desperately trying to reach the victory post.
But the surprise element in the elections is the entry of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which has fielded candidates for all the 90 seats. Although not a completely unknown entity in the State’s political set-up, the party is trying to make its presence felt and may throw up some surprising post-poll equations.
bijay@epmltd.com