RAIPUR: In the Lok Sabha elections held in Chhattisgarh so far, the BJP held the sway over the five reserved constituencies, the Election Commission data shows. Of the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, four are reserved for the scheduled tribes (ST) and one for the scheduled caste (SC).
Barring the victory by Congress candidate Deepak Baij from Bastar ST-reserved seat in the 2019 polls, the grand old party drew a blank in the reserved constituencies in the four Lok Sabha elections held in the state in the last two decades. Baij, now the state Congress president, is not contesting this time.
The BJP has been winning the reserved tribal seats of Kanker, Raigarh, Sarguja and Bastar, and the SC-reserved constituency of Janjgir-Champa. According to analysts, the poll battle in Bastar, where the Congress stalwarts like Shankar Sodhi and Mahendra Karma couldn’t win, seems evenly poised this time with six-time Congress MLA Kawasi Lakma pitted against the BJP’s first-timer Mahesh Kashyap who is closely associated with VHP.
The BJP has been wining Kanker and Bastar seats from the 1999 elections onward. The Raigarh seat remains a BJP stronghold with present CM Vishnu Deo Sai winning from there three times in a row from 2004. The BJP has given ticket to Congress turncoat Chintamani Maharaj, who was earlier named as a “beneficiary” by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged coal levy scam, to contest from Sarguja in north Chhattisgarh.
All the reserved seats in Chhattisgarh have more women voters than men, EC data shows. More women exercising their franchise shows the level of awareness among the voters, analysts say. In the 2023 Assembly polls, the BJP returned to power in the state getting 46.27 per cent vote share. Analysts in the know of the state politics said the BJP hopes to make inroads into the Congress vote bank as several leaders have defected to the saffron party.