By Neeraj Mishra
The Congress is facing a severe money crunch all across the country, so it’s no surprise that it has chosen to give Lok Sabha tickets to only those candidates who are financially capable. One such candidate is Devendra Yadav, who is the sitting MLA from Bhilai in Durg district. He has been given the ticket from Bilaspur and his candidature is being severely opposed by Congressmen from the district one of whom is on a fast unto death in front of the Bilaspur Congress office.
Yadav is not a well-known leader and his only claim to fame is that he has been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in the coal and transportation scams in Chhattisgarh. He is close to former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who also hails from the same district. It appears he may have influenced Yadav’s selection on the ground that he may be able to garner Yadav support in Bilaspur district. Now, a former Nagar panchayat president from the district, Jagdish Kaushik, is on a strike at the district Congress office demanding a ticket for himself. He is being backed by local Congress leaders from behind the scenes, including a sitting MLA from the larger Lok Sabha constituency.
Even given the circumstances under which the Congress chose its candidates for the Lok Sabha, it is surprising that Tamradhwaj Sahu, who had won Durg in 2014 has been shifted to Mahasamund. Yadav could have been fielded from Durg but has been sent to Bilaspur and Baghel himself has chosen to contest from neighbouring Rajnandgaon instead of his home base Durg. It is no surprise that each one of them is facing opposition from local Congress leaders. Baghel is being opposed by local leaders like Surendra Dau who says that Baghel ran the state like a private limited company and never bothered about Rajnandgaon during his tenure as CM.
Meanwhile, the Gondwana Gantantra Party, which has a sizeable following among tribals in Rajnandgaon district, has put up Naresh Motghare against Baghel. It has also decided to contest 10 of the 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state. It has no chance of winning any seat but it can make a difference on some seats for both the main parties in the state.
Bilaspur division is key to politics in the state in many ways. It has the largest number of Assembly seats at 25 compared to Raipur division at 19 and Durg division at 20. Of these Congress won 14 seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections, more than a third of its 35 seats in the Assembly. These seats are divided in three Lok Sabha constituencies of Bilaspur, Korba and Janjgir. Despite the strong performance in Assembly elections in the region, the Congress appears unlikely to win any of these seats. It has a sitting MP from Korba in Jyotsna Mahant but she faces a tough match against the BJP’s Saroj Pandey.