Congress, out of power in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh since 2003, is exploiting name of BJP’s iconic leader former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee to take on Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on his home turf — Rajnandgaon seat — which goes to polls on Monday.
Raman Singh, the longest serving chief minister of BJP, is locked in a direct fight with his former mentor Karuna Shukla, niece of late Vajpayee. The 68-year-old Shukla, the former BJP Lok Sabha MP, had ended her 32-year-long association with the BJP in 2014 and joined Congress.
The down to earth Shukla is known as a clean image person and she had rejected BJP’s repeated efforts in recent past to give up her anger against the saffron party and the Congress cleverly fielded her against the BJP’s most popular face in Chhattisgarh- Raman Singh, to deny him a walkover.
Rs Rs Voters in Rajnandgaon are in a big dilemma this time as they have great affection and regard for Raman Singh but Shukla is a simple and sober woman and most importantly she is seeking votes in name of late Vajpayeeji rather than Congress or Rahul Gandhi,’’ says Tejindar Bhatia who owns a grocery shop at Gurunanak Chowk in heart of Rajnandgaon town.
A mobile shop owner Raju Sahu admitted that Raman Singh would seal the victory because of his Rs deep bonding and strong connect’ for over the years with voters while Shukla is a Rs parachute candidate’ who had been used by Congress to scare the BJP. The Congress camp is also encouraged by huge turnout of locals in a road show carried out by Congress president Rahul Gandhi on November 9 in Rajnandgaon town with Shukla and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Bhupesh Baghel.
Sensing that there is a fight on Raman Singh’s home turf, BJP chief Amit Shah staged a road show in Rajnandgaon town hours before campaigning ended on Saturday.
The BJP’s road show was dubbed as one of the biggest election road shows in Chhattisgarh and Shah advised voters to ensure Raman Singh wins by not less than 70,000 votes difference.
Rs Rs You need to double the victory margin this time for Raman Singh, last time in 2013 he had won by a little over 35,000 votes difference, this time the margin should be above 70,000 votes’’ Shah urged voters in presence of Raman Singh.
Chhattisgarh has a total of 90 assembly seats and in the first phase, polling will be held for 18 seats -- 12 in Bastar and six in Rajnandgaon district. The second and final phase of polling in the mineral-rich state is scheduled on November 20. The results will be declared on December 11.
