Only issue in Chhattisgarh Lok Sabha battle – Modi, Modi, Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completely overshadowed everything else as Chhattisgarh, in the very heart of India, prepares to elect 11 Lok Sabha members from the state in April-May.

Most political pundits in the state admit that the one overarching campaign theme in Chhattisgarh centres around Modi and the chances of his remaining the prime minister for a third five-year term.

That Modi has become the dominant factor in the electoral battle is in part thanks to the BJP's win in the Assembly election late last year that ended five years of Congress rule, much against most predictions.

On campaign trail

Modi visited the state on Monday (April 8), hitting out at the opposition Congress, saying it overlooked the needs of the poor for decades since Independence and never understood their pain.

Modi-versus…

“There are practically no issues this time in Chhattisgarh barring that it is broadly a Modi-versus-nobody fight,” said a source known to be close to the state Congress leadership.

“In other words, the main issue, if it can be called an issue, is PM Modi,” the source told The Federal.

Ironically, there were many issues at play during the Assembly elections late last year when the Congress was widely expected to triumph in Chhattisgarh but was surprisingly ejected out of office.

Aggressive BJP

The now ruling and supremely confident BJP is asking people in Chhattisgarh to vote for its candidates so that Modi can continue to govern India for another five years.

This is the one point that Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, a tribal, keeps parroting at every campaign rally besides the virulent attacks he makes on the erstwhile Congress government.

There is no mention of national level Congress leaders in the campaign speeches of BJP leaders, perhaps to reinforce the widely held opinion that Modi faces no challenger of equal standing in the electoral battle.

Three phases

Chhattisgarh will see polling in the tribal-dominated Bastar constituency on April 19, the day when the Lok Sabha balloting opens nationally. Three constituencies in the state will go to the polls on April 26 and seven more on May 7, accounting for a total of 11 seats.

The Congress won one of the 11 seats in 2014 and two seats in 2019. Congress sources say the party is hoping to bag two-to-three seats this time, including Rajnandgaon, where its candidate is former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, and Korba, where the party has fielded its outgoing MP Jyotsana Mahant.

Baghel, Mahant

But Congress sources readily admit that if Baghel and Mahant win, it will be more because of their personalities and their standing among the electorate rather than because they are from India’s oldest political party.

This, the sources say, is another admission that the most dominant election issue in the state this time is Modi.

“If there were other issues, then those would matter and probably help the opposition,” said a Congress source. “But that is not the case. It is just Modi, Modi… If and when the Congress accuses Modi of throttling democracy and the like, it again catapults Modi in the centre-stage.”

Congress attack

The Congress indeed accuses the prime minister of doing everything possible to throttle democracy and constitutional values but a brazen BJP flaunts Modi as the best prime minister India has had.

And because the BJP has only recently re-taken power in Chhattisgarh, there is no anti-incumbency as such in the state.

Naturally, the BJP is aggressive in its campaign and is accusing the Congress, which lost power late last year, of having encouraged corruption and not providing good governance.

People issues

In most Lok Sabha seats this time, the Congress has its back to the wall.

Because of the overarching Modi factor, the usual people-centric issues such as price rise, unemployment, economic distress and farmer issues have been drowned or at least do not make much of an impact.