Raman Singh wins ‘20-20’ fight, scores hat-trick in Chhattisgarh; Cong strategy of fielding sitting MLAs boomeranged

Raipur: After a day-long neck-to-neck fight, the BJP won the Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, with absolute majority paving way for Raman Singh to become chief minister for third time in a row.

While BJP bagged 49 out of total 90 seats, Congress secured 39 seats. Bhujan Samaj Party won one seat. The remaining seat went to a BJP rebel who contested as an independent.

BJP has 50 MLAs in the current Assembly, while Congress has 38 members. Similarly, BSP has two MLAs.

BJP however faced a reversal of fortune in tribal-dominated Bastar this time when the party barely managed to win only four out of total 12 seats in the region. Congress, which was expected to gain electorally from the May 25 tragedy in which the party’s key leaders were massacred by Maoists at Jiram Ghati, walked away with the remaining eight seats.

The BJP had formed government following its good show in Bastar in 2008 Assembly polls when the party won all the 12 seats barring one.

The party, however, could foresee a wash-out in Bastar this time and hence focused on the plains to compensate the loss. “Our strategy to focus on the plains to compensate the possible loss in Bastar has paid off. We could make in road in Cong-ress bastions by winning at least a dozen Congress seats,” a BJP spokesman said.

Our strategy failed us: Congress

Raipur: Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) president Charan Das Mahant, who had led the party in the just-concluded Assembly polls in the state, on Sunday said, “Our strategy to retain all the 38 sitting MLAs has boomeranged leading to defeat of the party in the elections“.

“Majority of sitting Congress MLAs of the party faced anti-incumbency. This has been proved following defeat of 27 out of 38 sitting party legislators fielded in the elections“, he said, “This is the major reason behind defeat of Congress in Chhattisgarh“.

Mahant's assessment carried much weight con sidering the fact that the ruling BJP’s strategy to replace as many as 14 out of 50 sitting BJP MLAs seemed to have paid off.

The ruling party had fielded total 22 new faces, 14 of whom replaced the sitting BJP legislators. All these 14 candidates barring two won the elections.

Owning responsibility for the defeat of party in the polls, the PCC chief said “I was not going to offer any excuses for the defeat. I accept the people’s verdict and congratulate BJP for the party’s victory”.

Mahant also indicated that sabotage by a “senior party leader” was another factor that forced the party to bite dusts in the elections.

“Nobody could imagine that some veteran leaders who were confident of their victory could face defeat in the polls. We clearly see sabotages against them. However, I am not raising my finger at any particular leader for sabotage. We will go deep into the matter to find out the saboteur,” he said while listing names of big leaders including Congress Legislature Party leader Ravindra Choubey who bit the dust in the elections.