‘Modi ki Guarantee’ helps beat Congress in Chhattisgarh

New Delhi: Despite the exit polls, which indicated a comfortable return for the Congress, the BJP sprung a surprise in Chhattisgarh, winning 54 seats of the 90 seats while Congress was able to win only 35 seats.

For BJP, this was the biggest victory in the assembly elections in the state since it was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000. The BJP swept in Northern, Central Chhattisgarh and Bastar regions.

In the assembly elections held for the first time in Chhattisgarh in 2003, BJP had won 50 seats with a 39.26 per cent vote share.

In subsequent polls in 2008 and 2018, then Chief Minister Raman Singh led the party to bag 50 seats (40.33 per cent votes) and 49 seats (41.04 per cent votes), respectively and ruled the state for 15 years.
In 2018, the BJP suffered a massive defeat at the hands of Congress and was reduced to 15 seats.

On its part, the Congress bagged 37 seats (36.71 per cent votes) in 2003, 38 seats (38.63 per cent votes) in 2008 and 39 seats (40.29 per cent votes) in 2013. The Congress won 68 seats with 43.04 per cent votes in 2018.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel won from his home turf Patan by defeating BJP Lok Sabha member Vijay Baghel. Several stalwarts from Congress including Deputy Chief Minister T S Singh Deo and Chhattisgarh Congress president Deepak Baij lost. Even Amit Ajit Jogi from Janata Congress Chhattisgarh lost.

The top BJP leader and former Chief Minister Raman Singh won from Rajnandgaon by defeating Congress candidate Girish Dewangan by a margin of 45,084 votes. BJP state president Arun Kumar Sao won from Lormi assembly segment.

Senior BJP leader- Leader of Opposition - Dharamlal Kaushik won from Bilha and former IAS officer O P Chaudhary won from Raigarh.
The Prime Minister visited the state at least eight times, held rallies and addressed huge public meetings. Several central ministers and BJP chief ministers camped in the state for many weeks to lead the election campaign.

The promises made by the BJP, which it promoted as ‘Modi ki Guarantee 2023’, seemed to have worked in its favour in the tribal-dominated state, where it is poised to win a thumping majority. In the 2018 assembly polls, the Congress had registered a landslide victory largely because of a strong anti-incumbency against the then BJP dispensation and due to the grand old party’s promise of freebies and welfare measures. The BJP this time made populist promises in its manifesto, titled 'Modi ki Guarantee 2023' for Chhattisgarh. They included procurement of 21 quintals of paddy per acre at Rs 3,100 per quintal, and annual financial assistance of Rs 12,000 to married women under the 'Mahtari Vandan Yojana'.

The Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha has 90 seats, of which 29 are reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 10 for Scheduled Castes.