Chhattisgarh: PM’s rallies, attack on Baghel govt led BJP to victory

RAIPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed five rallies in Chhattisgarh after announcement of Assembly polls, targeting Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel over the alleged Mahadev app scam and accusing the Congress of appeasement politics, while calling the Bharatiya Janata Party’s promises as “Modi’s guarantees”.

Against predictions by most exit polls that the ruling Congress had an edge in the state, the BJP, which banked heavily on the charisma of the PM, won in the 90-member Assembly.

In his five rallies in Kanker, Durg, Surajpur, Mungeli and Mahasamund districts after announcement of the poll schedule on October 9, Modi had attacked the Congress over corruption and had said the BJP would come back to set the state back on the path of development.

“BJP ne banaya hai, BJP hi sawaregi (BJP has created Chhattisgarh and it only would nurture the state),” he had said in the rallies, including in Mungeli and Mahasamund on November 13 where he accused CM Baghel of stalling development and allowing his kin, including son, and a coterie of officials to act as “super CM”.

He also spoke about the alleged money trail in the Mahadev app “scam”, which is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate, asserting that “30 per cent wale kakka ka sarkar ka jaana pakka ho gaya” (the 30 per cent commission government of Kaka is sure to go). Baghel is fondly called ‘kaka’ by his supporters.

The PM had also said the Baghel government was involved in alleged irregularities in the state public service commission recruitment process and had warned that those involved would not be spared when the BJP comes to power.

Slamming the Congress for its demand for a caste census, Modi had said the poor were the biggest caste for him in the country. The PM had addressed rallies in Jagdalpur (October), Bilaspur and Raigarh (September) and Raipur (July), which were well attended and set the ground for the BJP’s campaign to unseat Baghel.

It seems the promises made by the BJP, which it promoted as Modi ki Guarantee 2023’, worked in its favour as it is all set to return to power in the tribal-dominated state with 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 the grand old party’s promise of freebies and welfare measures.