New Delhi: Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh is banking heavily on twin factors of Jogi and Yogi to seek reelection from the state for his fourth term. While the former chief minister is likely to cut votes of BJP’s principal rival Congress, Uttar Pradesh chief minister is being seen as its star campaigner who could consolidate the Hindu votes with his appeal amongst the voters.
The BJP is relying on the alliance between Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress Chhattisgarh and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party to change the voting statistics in at least 10 Assembly constituencies. The state has SC population of 11.6 percent. There are total of 10 assembly seats reserved for SCs. And a consolidation of voters through the Jogi-BSP alliance could affect the fortunes of candidates in these assembly segments, sources added. The BJP believes that BSP tie-up with Jogi’s Janata Congress Chhattisgarh would eventually hurt Congress badly and boost BJP’s chances of another victory in the state.
In 2003, BSP had two MLAs in state assembly. In 2008, BSP again won two seats in state assembly. In 2013, it could win only one seat in the state. It had 4.45% vote share in 2003 which went up to 6.11 in 2008 and but saw a decline in 2013 when it came down to 4.27%. In Chhattisgarh, the BSP currently has one sitting MLA in the house of 90. However, the potential to have few more of BSP MLAs in the state is never discounted for. The BJP believes that there are 8 to 10 seats, with its 25,000 to 30,000 votes, where BSP could play spoil sport for Opposition.
Another strong factor that Dr Singh expectes to work for him is Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath who has already addressed several rallies in the state. Chhattisgarh heads for the second phase of polls on November 20. In most of these rallies Yogi drives home the point regarding the connection between the two states by reiterting that while Uttar Pradesh was home of Lord Ram, the state of Chhattisgarh was considered to be the home of Ram’s mother Kaushalya. The importance of Yogi was evident when he accompanied Dr Singh during the filing of nomination, where the Chhattisgarh chief minister also paid obecience to him by touching his feet.
In fact the BJP’s campaign managers in the state have thronged with the requests to schedule Yogi’s rallies in their constituencies.
Yogi is considered to be important in the scheme of things in Chhattisgarh as he heads the powerful Nath sect of ascetics.
The craze to get controversial hardline Hindutva leader as one of the campaigners has not died down and plans are drawn to utilise the CM with staunch Hindu image. His is the utility to consolidate Hindu votes in favour of BJP. The attraction, say BJP leaders, is Yogi’s ability to create controversy without effort. The candidates also love him for his ability to draw the crowd and media alike.
