Chhattisgarh: Will sympathy factor win Bastar for Rahul?

By Parivesh Mishra, Raipur If head count at election rallies were the measure of stature of a national leader, Narendra Modi compares poorly with Rahul Gandhi at least in one place: Kanker in Chhattisgarh. Modi’s rally at Kanker yesterday, according to estimates provided by security forces on the spot, was attended by 2,500 people; Rahul’s rally at the same venue today witnessed a gathering of 12,000. After being targeted for personal attack by the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for so long, the Congress vice-president could well consider it a minor victory. But he would also be aware that it means little - crowds at rallies don’t necessarily translate into votes. [caption id=“attachment_1219453” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] If content and connect in rally speeches is all that matters, his speeches at Kanker and Rajnandgoan, the other place he visited today, reflected both to a certain degree, unlike his earlier efforts elsewhere in the country. He was typically all aggression and decibels. He raised more or less the same issues that his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi did in her address at Kondagaon in the interior Bastar yesterday, but was more forceful in comparison. He dwelt on the charges of corruption against the Raman Singh government and played the emotion card deftly, reminding the audience of the killing of top Congress leaders by Maoists in Bastar in May this year. He recalled the incident at length and accused the BJP government of doing nothing. “Congress leaders killed in the Maoist attack were the voice of the people,” he said, adding “the only way Nand Kumar Patel could have been stopped from becoming chief minister was by being killed.” If he was insinuating the role of the BJP government in the incident, the hint was rather unsubtle. The Congress has fielded Alka Mudliyar - widow of one of the slain leaders, Uday Mudliyar - from Rajnandgaon against Chief Minister Raman Singh. Uday Mudliyar was an MLA from this constituency and had given a tough fight to Raman Singh in the last unsuccessful attempt from the same seat. His widow is making the fight tougher this time. If there is a sympathy factor for the Congress after the killing of its top leadership by the Maoists it is not visible yet. But this could be the big game changer for the party in the Bastar region, which goes to polls on November 11. According to conventional wisdom, whoever wins the majority of the 12 Bastar seats goes on to rule the state. The BJP had won 11 of these in the previous assembly elections. The Congress, with nothing much to show in terms of performance as the chief opposition party, is banking heavily on the sympathy factor to wrest Bastar from the BJP. Rahul’s speech indicated as much. In Kanker, he spoke of “guarantee” of providing food and of providing employment; about offering minimum support price for forest produce; and the Land Acquisition Act and the Forest Dwellers Act. He spoke of empowering youth, women and poor. However, the focus was clearly on evoking an emotional response from the audience. The winner perhaps was when he pointed to the last row and said, “I want the MLAs to come from amongst them.” He instantly hit the right cord. The class 12th-pass tribal Samu Kashyap, now famous as Rahul Gandhi’s discovery, lives close by and is fighting on a Congress ticket from the neighboring general constituency, Jagdalpur. Of course, he made the Congress pecking order in Chhattisgarh clear in the beginning itself. It has been a vexatious issue for the party for a long time. He started with mentioning “BK Hariprasad ji, Charan Das Mahant ji, Moti Lal Vora ji, Ajit Jogi ji…..” and in the process conveyed the most important message to the electorate at large: the status of Jogi. Speaking at the same venue yesterday, Modi had reminded the people of Chhattisgarh of the rule of Ajit Jogi before BJP took over from him ten years ago. Today Rahul Gandhi, in an innocuous approach tried to dispel the fears of Jogi’s return.