Smaller parties could hold key as BJP seeks to recapture Chhattisgarh

Desperate to oust the Congress and return to power in a state it ruled for 15 long years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making efforts to consolidate all anti-Congress votes in the Chhattisgarh assembly elections, likely to be held in December.

BJP leaders say the plan is to bring the smaller political parties in the state under the fold of its National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

“These elections are very important for the BJP. If I say it in one line, then this election in Chhattisgarh is about restoring the glory of the state,” BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill told The Federal. “In Chhattisgarh, it is an election about broken promises by the Congress. The state is suffering from poor governance,” he added.

In the 2018 assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, the BJP won just 15 seats with a vote share of 33 per cent while the Congress won 68 seats with 43 per cent of the votes. The outcome ended 15 years of BJP governance.

BJP leaders believe that alliances with smaller regional parties will help it to bridge the gap between its vote share and that of the Congress.

Regional alliances

The BJP has already formed an alliance with the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) in both Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. It is now hoping to induct some leaders of the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (JCCJ), a party launched by the now late Congress leader Ajit Jogi.

The BJP has inducted Dharamjeet Singh, a four-time MLA who was expelled from JCCJ last year over allegations of anti-party activities.

The BJP has also started early preparations for the Chhattisgarh polls as the central leadership realises there is a gap of 10 percentage points between the votes secured by the Congress and BJP.

Senior leaders said the idea to announce names of candidates more than three months before the elections was to ensure they got time to prepare for the battle.

Of the 21 names announced in the first list of candidates, most are from seats where the BJP lost by a close margin. Some seats are also those where the BJP faced a three-cornered or a multi-cornered fight involving the Congress, GGP and JCCJ.

Inducting others

“The BJP leadership has decided to give tickets to candidates early because we realise we can win the elections. The candidates are in sync with the ground realities,” said Shergill.

BJP leaders explained that although GGP got 1.73 per cent of the votes across Chhattisgarh, it polled more than 4 per cent of the votes in the 38 seats it contested. Similarly, while JCCJ only won five seats in the 90 member House, it got nearly 12 per cent of the votes in the seats it contested. BJP leaders believe these two parties can help it end the 10-percentage gap with the Congress.

The upcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh and four other states — Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Mizoram — will be the first after the formation of the INDIA opposition alliance against the BJP.

The elections are also important because Chhattisgarh is among the states where the Congress and BJP will be in direct competition in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan in 2019, 28 out of 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh and 9 out of 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh. In 2014, the BJP bagged 65 Lok Sabha seats in these three states.

‘United we stand’

Political analysts believe smaller parties can play a crucial role in constituencies where there is a close contest, especially in places that earlier faced a three-cornered or multi-cornered contest.

“This seems to be a well-thought out strategy because smaller parties do not have committed voters. Their votes depend on the leaders and on individual leaders in some areas. By inducting them, parties like BJP try to benefit from their following,” said Yatindra Singh Sisodia, a professor and director at the Madhya Pradesh Institute of Social Science Research, Ujjain.