Durg MP Vijay Baghel, the nephew of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, during a door-to-door campaign in Patan on Thursday. Photo by writer
Aditi Tandon
Patan (Durg), October 26
Right on the outskirts of capital Raipur, Chhattisgarh’s VVIP segment Patan is hosting an election bout between blood relatives. This is not the first time Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and his nephew Vijay Baghel, are facing off. Their first clash in 2003 ended with Bhupesh’s victory.
In 2008, Vijay crushed Bhupesh’s challenge, handing his uncle the first ever defeat in the rural constituency.
This is Dharma Yudh
This is Dharma Yudh. There are no blood relations here. The CM is betraying my people. —Vijay Baghel, durg MP
Since then, Bhupesh Baghel has been ensuring he not only wins Patan, but also improves the voting performance every time he defends the seat, as in 2013 and 2018. Put together, Bhupesh has won from Patan five times, starting 1993 in undivided Madhya Pradesh.
This time around, CM Baghel appears more confident than ever in his bastion.
No wonder while Vijay spent Thursday going door to door holding corner meetings across the constituency and making his ‘man-next-door’ moves, the CM concentrated on campaigning for the ruling Congress all over Chhattisgarh. “Celebrity leaders need not come here. They can continue to make money selling liquor,” Vijay, BJP’s sitting Lok Sabha MP from Durg, told the gathering of mostly women voters today.
Blanket prohibition is his top assurance to the segment where female electorate outnumber males.
Asked how he feels challenging his uncle time and again, Vijay told The Tribune, “There are no blood relations here. This is a Dharma Yudh, a war for righteousness and I am a loyal BJP soldier. I am challenging someone who has constantly betrayed my people. Bhupesh Baghel promised prohibition with Ganga jal in his hands. Did he keep his word? No. He is lying about farm loan waiver too.”
Besides targeting women voters, the Durg MP is attempting to woo farmers in the wake of the Congress announcing a farm loan waiver and the CM already giving a handsome monthly bonus over and above assured purchase of paddy at Rs 2,183 a quintal.
“The CM is betraying everyone while Chhattisgarh is reeling under debt. How can a caretaker CM even promise a farm loan waiver? Has any other Congress leader said this? No, because they know this is a lie,” says Vijay as he goes door to door, hoping to breach what appears to be an impregnable wall built on the foundations of pro-farmer and pro-poor welfarist schemes and sops.
No matter how lofty these look, the freebies appear to be enthusing many despite the reality of Chhattisgarh’s loans touching Rs 82,125 crore.
“Jo khawayega, wohi paayega,” says Neelam More, a housewife in Patan’s Chankutta village, where Vijay campaigned today.
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