Yatra battles in Chhattisgarh as Raman Singh aims for a hattrick

by Parivesh Mishra Raipur: A year ago, Chief Minister Raman Singh and the BJP appeared invincible in Chhattisgarh and nobody gave the faction-ridden Congress even an outside chance of a victory. However, as the assembly election draws closer, there are indications that it could be a close finish in the state. Though the big event is still some distance away, both parties have hit the road with a sense of urgency and are making a strong pitch for themselves through parallel ‘bus’ yatras. The chief minister had his 6,000 km ‘Vikas Yatra’ flagged off at Dantewada in southern Chhattisgarh by the party’s most experienced traveller, Lal Krishna Advani, on 6 May. He will, however, be using the state chopper to cover more than half the distance of his people connect programme which will be spread over a period of one-and-a-half months. The Congress is trying to make its statement through what its ‘Parivartan Yatra’. It started mid-April from Ambikapur on the northern tip of the state. The Congress bus has almost all the important faction leaders of the state on board, in sharp contrast to the BJP bus which has only Raman Singh as its passenger. This difference in the two team buses is a crucial one and has the potential of affecting the elections. The chief minister’s bus is not empty though. Raman Singh carries Rs 1,900 crore worth of cheques to be distributed to farmers as a bonus, laptops for college students, cycles for school going girls, sewing machines for mothers, farm equipment and a lot more. [caption id=“attachment_777839” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Raman Singh is hoping to lead the BJP to victory again. AFP[/caption] The chief minister realises he is a one-man team and the party expects him to deliver a hat-trick. No long ago, images of Singh in full cricket gear were splashed across the state by the official media management department. In some of the hoardings and newspaper ads  Singh was shown as a batsman, in others he was shown with the ball in his hand preparing to deliver a googly. The party has taken the images too seriously and wants him to be a complete match winner taking care of all the departments of the game. However, the task before him look like a difficult one though he is still leagues ahead of his main rival. For the last year, Singh  has been under relentless attack of the Congress and charges of corruption have flown thick and fast. Some have started sticking and defacing the image of the government in a state where Raman Singh is synonymous with the ruling party and the government. The Congress’ Parivartan Yatra is succeeding in getting the focus back on corruption charges. Chhattisgarh is a mineral rich state and there is no dearth of charges and counter-charges relating to allotment of mines doing the rounds in the political circles. Uncomfortably for the government, not many look seem unfounded. The perception of the chief minister has changed significantly. Barring an incident where Ajit Jogi’s supporters created a ruckus in Ambikapur at the start of the yatra, the Congress has been successful in preventing anything other than the largely positive coverage from grabbing the media attention. The Vikas Yatra of Raman Singh on the other hand has been courting controversies off and on. In his speech during the flagging off of the yatra, Advani, apparently on the basis of the figures supplied to him, lauded the state government for the round-the-clock electricity it provides to all the villages in the state. This tall claim is factually far from truth and the people in the state know it too well. Neither do all the villages have electricity – and this includes two thirds of the Bastar region where the claim was made – nor do consumers get uninterrupted power supply, especially in rural Chhattisgarh. Unfortunately for Singh, this false claim is what the yatra has come to be identified with. Creation of doubt about the veracity of claims right at the beginning of the yatra, which cites a list of achievements of the government and heavy statistics as its USP, will not help Singh. To add to it, Singh has not been able to remain infallible in choosing words in public. Interacting with the media last week he was widely reported for his quote – “Koi mai ka lal hai to saamney aaye”. Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh who was in the state to be a part of the Parivartan Yatra used this quote to support his charge that the CM had turned arrogant and an egoist. Not many disagree with Digvijaya in the state where Singh was known as a leader of rather limited fame till the 2003 elections; who after becoming a popular and accessible chief minister won again in 2008 only to grow more in stature and became rather distant for the public seen more on hoardings. The end of both the yatras in June will be analysed for the impact. Watch out for this space.