Takeaway from Chhattisgarh polls: Raman Singh rules the roost

The BJP had gone into the election with the slogan “fir Raman, fir Kamal”. The party had placed its faith on the Raman Singh brand to clinch an easy win - third time in a row in Chhattisgarh. And Singh, no doubt, has delivered. However, there were times when BJP’s confidence in its own potential wavered, especially on the counting day. Following the first phase of polling, news from the Bastar region that the party might be losing to Congress was cause for serious concern. After the first phase of polling was over on 11th November, the news filtering out of Bastar had left the party worried. Very heavy polling (over 75 percent, with 80 percent polling in five segments)  in the first phase of the elections and ideas floating around that things were not exactly going great with the BJP was enough to rattle the senior leadership. So following a quick mid-poll review, Narendra Modi’s charms were summon to revive the Chhattisgarh poll campaign. He was made more visible in the ad campaigns and was made to address more rallies than previously planned - Modi attended nine meetings in two days. [caption id=“attachment_1277501” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Raman Singh. AFP.[/caption] Certain conclusions can be made from the results now. Firstly, the BJP’s fears about Bastar were not completely unfounded. Of the 18 seats that had gone into polls in the region, Congress kept 12 while the BJP bagged just six. However, the fact that BJP still won the polls in Chhattisgarh proves that the importance of Bastar in the overall outcome in the state’s polls has been grossly overrated. Also, the doubts that were raised about Raman Singh’s achievements were highly misplaced. Raman Singh has won decisively. But several of his ministers - almost half the cabinet - have lost. The list includes some important names in Chhattisgarh politics - Nanki Ram Kanwar, the home minister from Rampur, Ram Vichar Netam, the law minister from Samri, Chandra Shekhar Sahu (Agriculture) from Abhanpur, and Hem Chandra Yadav from Durg. Many of the BJP candidates who won, were in fact, rank newcomers. So it is evident that the voters placed their trust in Raman Singh who had campaigned intensively in these constituencies. The Chhattisgarh results also explain the significance of higher percentage of women voters casting their votes. Women benefitted greatly from the distribution of new and revised ration cards, where their names appeared as the head of the family. In 55 out of the 90 seats, women voted more than the men; in 44 seats over 80 percent votes were cast. Most of these seats have gone to BJP. Another take-away from this poll result is the fact that the killing of the Congress leaders in a Maoist attack in Darbha generated sympathy for the Congress, but not enough to win them an election. In fact the frustration about the Maoist insurgency generated a whole bunch of NOTA votes in Bastar.  In Chitrakot in Bastar, for example, the number of NOTA votes stood at 10,848. In Dantewada where the widow of the slain leader Mahendra Karma got elected, the number of NOTA votes were 9677. The number of NOTA votes have been uniformly higher in all the Bastar seats. Though people came out to vote in large numbers in the Maoist affected regions of Bastar, votes deflected from both the Congress and the BJP and went to NOTA. That might be food for thought for Raman Singh as he starts his third term.