Can Bhupesh Baghel bail out Congress in Chhattisgarh?

CHHATTISGARH

BHUPESH BAGHEL’S overconfidence as Chhattisgarh chief minister was, perhaps, what resulted in his undoing in the assembly polls last year. Under his leadership, the Congress was reduced to 35 seats in the 90-member assembly, down from 68 in 2018.

The result could have been different had Baghel adhered to the power-sharing arrangement made in 2018, which would have allowed party colleague T.S. Singh Deo to become chief minister in the second half of the five-year term. But Baghel not only refused to honour his word, but even paraded MLAs who supported him before the Congress high command to stay on as chief minister. Deo, whose camaraderie with Baghel had once earned the duo the moniker ‘Jai and Veeru’ (after the lead characters in Sholay), had no choice but to make peace with the situation. He was made deputy chief minister just six months before the conclusion of the term.

It was because of the combined efforts of Baghel and Deo that the Congress could return to power in Chhattisgarh in 2018. Baghel led the party organisation while Deo was leader of the opposition in the assembly.

The party’s downfall began with Baghel going back on his word. As the Priyanka Gandhi Vadra camp in the Congress openly favoured Baghel, who was putting up a good show of his government’s achievements, the party in Chhattisgarh cracked from within because of doubts and suspicions between rival camps. The poll results came as a jolt to the Congress leadership, which was confident of retaining power in Raipur.

Now, the party is on a crucial threshold yet again. At a time when the BJP is moving heaven and earth to win each and every Lok Sabha seat, Baghel has a chance to prove that he alone can bail out the Congress in the state. The Congress won only two of 11 seats in the state in 2019; the BJP, which won nine, is out to win all seats this time.

Baghel himself is contesting the polls, so the battle has become tougher. But if he and Deo are able to lead a unified campaign, political analysts say the Congress could increase its 2019 tally. “There are five Lok Sabha seats, including the two won last time, where a close contest is expected between the BJP and the Congress,” said senior journalist Uchit Sharma. According to him, “while Korba and Bastar were already with the Congress, it could swing the balance in its favour in Rajnandgaon, where Baghel himself is in the race against incumbent MP Santosh Pandey of the BJP.” Pandey, who has strong RSS backing, had won by a margin of more than one lakh votes.

According to Yashwant Gohil, executive editor of Dainik Bhaskar in Raipur, “in Kanker, too, where the Congress lost in 2019 by a paltry margin of 6,914 votes, there is every chance for the party to turn the tables against the BJP”. He also expects a close contest in Janjgir-Champa, even though the BJP’s victory margin there was more than 83,000.

Interestingly, people in villages feel that the Congress government under Baghel gave them many schemes, and some of them were yet to be resumed by the new BJP government under Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai. “So many of the welfare schemes introduced by Baghel have been discontinued,” said Balchand Tandon, a 68-year-old farmer in Sunder Khera village. “Even some of the Union government schemes, including Modi’s Kisan Samman Nidhi of Rs6,000, given in three equal instalments of Rs2,000, is yet to be disbursed.”

Khemraj Tandon, a 27-year-old arts graduate, is worried about lack of jobs. “The only jobs available are through outsourcing, which neither entitles you to proper wages, nor gives you any kind of security; there is only exploitation,” he said. The discontinuation of the Rajiv Mitan Club Yojana, under which Baghel was giving an unemployment dole of Rs1,500 a month, has also angered the youth.

Brijmohan Agarwal, education minister and the BJP’s most popular leader in the state, said the government had not discontinued any scheme. “Some schemes have been renamed, but people’s welfare is our top priority,” he said. “There could be some delay in disbursement, but no one has been deprived of anything.”

Raman Singh, speaker in the assembly and three-term chief minister, said most welfare schemes were initiated by his government. “So how can we do away with any of the programmes that are meant for the common man’s welfare? We have been paying the highest MSP (minimum support price) to farmers in this state, which is also known as the country’s rice bowl because we are the biggest paddy grower in the country,” he said.

Baghel said his government had introduced a special bonus over and above the MSP on paddy. “And, even though more than three months have passed since the BJP government came to power, farmers are yet to receive this special bonus,” he said.

Baghel has been showcasing the welfare measures that he had initiated when he was chief minister―such as free electricity up to 200 units, and gas cylinder at Rs500. And because he is confident that people will remember him for these schemes, the Congress, too, is placing its bets on his leadership.