RAIPUR: The Maoist-affected Bastar Lok Sabha seat in south Chhattisgarh will witness a keen contest between a relatively unknown new face from BJP and a senior Congress leader in the first phase of polling on April 19. The elections in the reserved seat with predominantly tribal population will not just decide the political fortune of the candidates but also test the leadership potential of state party chiefs from Bastar region — Kiran Dev (BJP) and Deepak Baij (Congress).
The BJP is strongly relying on PM Modi’s “magic.” In the 2023 Assembly polls, the party believed the religious conversion issue worked for them in nearly half of the 12 assembly seats of the Bastar zone.
Apparently relying on such perception, the saffron party has picked a locally known ‘Hinduvta’ face Mahesh Kashyap, a senior leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
The Congress candidate Kawasi Lakhma, former excise minister in the Bhupesh Baghel-led government and a six-time MLA from Konta seat, is a familiar face in Bastar. He is known to stir up rows with his remarks to remain in vogue. Since the imposition of model code of conduct, there have been three FIRs lodged against him in Bastar.
Both Lakhma and Kashyap went full throttle across the constituency during the last few days before the campaign ended on Wednesday.
“Your vote is for Modi, not for me”, Kashyap was often heard as he harped on ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’ during his election campaign. Lakhma, appealing to local tribal sentiments, reiterated the five guarantees of the Congress aimed for women, farmers, youths and poor tribals. BJP added religious conversion issues to the state politics in the poll season.
The Maoists’ threat, evidently seen as a challenge in the restive Bastar that included most of the hypersensitive areas with around 40% area of the constituency cited to have the presence of Maoists. The only military battalion of the banned outfit is said to be based in Bastar.
Bastar seat covers eight assembly constituencies. Some polling booths owing to security reasons have been shifted — 99 (Bijapur), 42 (Dantewada), 42 (Konta), 41 (Narayanpur), 9 (Chitrakot).
Polling team for 156 booths in hypersensitive and inhospitable terrain have been air-lifted by nine choppers.
Interestingly despite the poll boycott call given by the Maoists and persisting threat perception during every Lok Sabha elections, the Bastar has witnessed an increase of 27 percent on voter turnout in 2019 compared to 2004 when the first parliamentary polls were held in Chhattisgarh after the state was carved out. In 2004 the voter turnout was 43.3% and it gradually rose to 47.3 (2009), 59.3 (2014) and 70.3% in 2019. Bastar with over 60 percent tribal population also has 1,086 women voters for every 1,000 men electorate.
With Adivasi voters playing a decisive role in the four scheduled tribe reserved seats of the state, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had addressed big rallies from the tribal heartland of Bastar the previous week.Since 1999 till 2014, the BJP remained a winner in the Bastar constituency. The Congress won the seat in 2019.
The Chhattisgarh police and the paramilitary forces have jointly worked out strategies and deployment plans to ensure the polling on Friday remains free, fair and peaceful.
Over 80000 personnel are to be deployed including 350 companies (around 80-90 jawans in each) of paramilitary forces. As many as 75 new operational security base camps have been set up in strategic locations during the last five years in Bastar zone.
“The presence of more camps as a development bubble led to building infrastructure, gaining trust of local tribals and diminishing the impact of Maoist strongholds”, said Sundarraj P, Bastar range inspector general of police.
