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Chhattisgarh election 2023: Anti-incumbency sword scalps only the less affluent in Congress, BJP

Of the 18 sitting MLAs who have been dropped, most come from the SC/ST communities and have held no position of power, and have not been involved in any scam.

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Bhupesh Baghel

By Neeraj Mishra

The main parties in Chhattisgarh, the BJP and the Congress, have announced their list of candidates in batches for the 2023 Assembly elections. There is nothing surprising in either list, in fact, there is a lot in common.

The 2023 elections will witness almost a similar match up as in 2018. The Congress has repeated more than 50 of its 70 MLAs while the BJP has repeated 11 of its 13 and given tickets to another 15 who had lost five years ago.

So the BJP is taking the field with 49 old faces while the Congress is seeking to return to power with 55 in an Assembly of 90 MLAs. What is, however, common to both sides is those repeated are all ministers, ex-ministers and generally the affluent lot. Those with less money in their bank accounts and fewer properties have been ignored. It’s a battle of the corrupt and the corruptible.

It was expected that Congress will not repeat at least 20 of its 70 sitting MLAs as a political stratagem to combat the anti-incumbency factor. It has done so but in a brilliant brainwave, its leadership is convinced that only the poorer of its MLAs have an anti-incumbency factor working against them! So it has repeated all its 13 ministers, the Speaker and even those MLAs who are under Enforcement Directorate scanner for corruption. Some of the ministers like Shiv Deharia, Jaisingh Agarwal and Ravindra Choubey are unpopular in their constituencies over allegations of having reaped riches in office.

Those who have been left out to dry include one former minister Premsai Singh and three others whose candidature was not acceptable to Deputy CM TS Singhdeo. Of these, Brihaspati Singh, an ST MLA, had levelled serious charges of  attempt to murder against Singhdeo. Of the 18 sitting MLAs who have been dropped, most come from the SC/ST communities and have held no position of power, and have not been involved in any scam. Only one MLA facing the ED heat Chandra Dev Rai has been denied the Congress ticket. The clear message is that affluent politicians can either buy their way through or cannot be denied because they have built a strong network of other gratified fellows.

Strangely enough, this syndrome affects the BJP more than the Congress. Brijmohan Agarwal, who is contesting his 10th election from the same seat in Raipur, had been extremely unpopular within the BJP for his proximity to Baghel. He had been currying favours with Baghel and has remained ensconced in his old ministerial bungalow for the past five years much to the chagrin of the BJP state leadership. But Agarwal comes from an affluent background and cannot be denied.

So does another BJP moneybag from Bilaspur, former excise minister Amar Agarwal, who lost in 2018. He is the son of former BJP heavyweight late Lakhiram Agarwal and runs a vast empire of gutka and gudakhu. So does Rajesh Mudat who has been repeated despite his defeat in 2018 from Raipur. He comes from the affluent Jain community and is capable of spending for at least two constituencies. 

While the BJP has attempted to dust off allegations of nepotism and parivarwad by denying tickets to progeny, the Congress has not held back. Amitesh Shukla, the son of former chief minister Shyama Charan Shukla, will be contesting his sixth straight election from Rajim and Arun Vora, the son of another former CM Motilal Vora will be contesting his fourth. Pankaj Sharma, the son of former minister Satyanarain Sharma, has been given the ticket but only after his father decided to step aside for him.

Another interesting aside is that more than 125 of the 180 candidates from both parties reside in Raipur and only travel to their constituency during elections. So much for people’s representation.

2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Farooq Abdullah accuses PM Modi of trying to divide the country over religion

Faroukh Abdullah reacted to PM Modi’s remark that the Congress will redistribute people’s money and property to Muslims if voted to power and said Muslims respect all religions. He said that they are Muslims and Allah has told them to respect other religions. He further added that a Muslim cannot snatch anyone’s right.

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Farooq Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir’s National Conference President said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to divide the country over religion. He also said that those who will vote for them must prepare for hell. Farooq Abdullah said Muslims cannot snatch away the rights of others.

Farooq Abdullah also called Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government a threat to the survival of the country. Omar Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister cautioned the people not to divide this country on the basis of religion, otherwise a storm will unleash making the survival of the nation difficult. He said it is better to talk about uniting the country, instead of dividing its people.

He was addressing an election rally in Thanamandi area of the Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir. The Anantnag parliamentary constituency will go for elections on May 25. Faroukh Abdullah reacted to PM Modi’s remark that the Congress will redistribute people’s money and property to Muslims if voted to power and said Muslims respect all religions. He said that they are Muslims and Allah has told them to respect other religions. He further added that a Muslim cannot snatch anyone’s right.

He remembered an incident when former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi once stopped his car in Pulwama and assured a poor Hindu woman that he would give her a mangalsutra as she could not afford it. Farooq Abdullah said those who were against the INDIA bloc are against the nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier sparked a controversy last month as he commented that the Congress would take away the hard-earned money of the masses and distribute them among infiltrators and those with many children.  Speaking at a rally today, the Prime Minister took a jibe at the Congress and said the governments in the past were not able to implement the Indian Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir. He was referring to the revocation of Article 370.

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Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah writes to PM Modi, urges home ministry to cancel diplomatic passport of Prajwal Revanna

CM Siddaramaiah wrote in the letter to PM Modi that he must be aware of the serious case of alleged sexual exploitation of a number of women by the sitting Hassan Lok Sabha member of Parliament (MP) and the NDA candidate, Prajwal Revanna, for the same constituency for the  ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where he urged the Home Affairs Ministry to cancel the diplomatic passport of Prajwal Revanna. Earlier a day before Revanna was suspended by JD(S) amid a row over explicit videos. Revanna is believed to have escaped to Germany shortly after the first phase of elections ended in Karnataka on April 26, in which he was JD(S)-BJP’s candidate from Hassan.

CM Siddaramaiah wrote in the letter to PM Modi that he must be aware of the serious case of alleged sexual exploitation of a number of women by the sitting Hassan Lok Sabha member of Parliament (MP) and the NDA candidate, Prajwal Revanna, for the same constituency for the  ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Karnataka Chief Minister wrote in letter that the Congress government in Karnataka has constituted a Special Investigation Team to investigate the allegations against Revanna. The SIT is working day and night to investigate the allegations of crimes against several women by Prajwal Revanna and getting him back to the country is of utmost importance so that he faces investigation and trial as per the existing law of the land.

Siddaramaiah urged PM Modi to move the Home Ministry to take swift action to cancel the diplomatic passport of Prajwal Revanna and appropriate action must be taken using diplomatic and police channels of the Government of India as well as international police agencies to ensure the swift return of the absconding member of parliament to face the existing law of the land.

Suspended JD(S) leader Prajwal Revanna, accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, broke his silence on Wednesday and said that truth will prevail soon. In his first response since the controversy erupted, Prajwal Revanna said on X that he is not in Bengaluru currently and has communicated the same to CID.

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Amit Shah says BJP will neither remove reservation for SCs, STs and OBC, nor will allow Congress to do so

The Home Minister alleged that the Congress’ formula was to speak lies loudly, publicly and repetitively. He advised Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge not to speak lies for a family as eventually he will have to take the blame for the party’s loss in the Lok Sabha elections

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday continued to attack Congress over reservation row. He was addressing a rally in Katghora town of Chhattisgarh’s Korba district to campaign for Saroj Pandey, BJP candidate from the Korba Lok Sabha seat where Shah said BJP will neither remove reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs, nor will it allow Congress to do so.

The Home Minister alleged that the Congress’ formula was to speak lies loudly, publicly and repetitively. He advised Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge not to speak lies for a family as eventually he will have to take the blame for the party’s loss in the Lok Sabha elections. Shah accused Congress of nurturing terrorism and Naxalism to win the Lok Sabha elections.

Shah further added that Congress claims if Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji gets majority for the third term, he will scrap reservation. He said the grand old party has even circulated his fake video. Shah said that have been in power for the last 10 years and PM Modi did not remove reservation, nor will he do it in the future.

The Union Home Minister further asserted Modi ji used the majority to scrap Article 370 and triple talaq, construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and introduce the Citizenship Amendment Act. He further told the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi do not belong to anyone. He said on June 4 Congress will suffer defeat and the brother-sister duo will remain safe, but Kharge ji will be blamed.

Shah further asserted if PM Modi becomes the prime minister for the 3rd straight term, then Naxalism will be uprooted in two years in Chhattisgarh.  Shah targeted the previous Bhupesh Baghel-led government in Chhattisgarh and said, The Bhupesh Kakka government encouraged Naxalism, but after the BJP came to power in the state under CM Vishnu Deo Sai and Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma 95 Naxalites have been eliminated in 4 months.

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