Ex-CM versus ‘shadow CM’ in Rajnandgaon segment of Chhattisgarh

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

Rajnandgaon, October 28

Locals in the VVIP Rajnandgaon segment of Chhattisgarh turned up in large numbers today to witness the first roadshow by their long-time MLA and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh.

Singh, 71, is walking an extra mile to impress the voters, who gave him the scare of his life in the 2018 election.

Singh won the seat in the previous poll by the slimmest ever margin, polling 16, 929 votes more than his closest rival Karuna Shukla, the late niece of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Shukla was the Congress face.

“Had Karuna Shukla been alive today, the Congress would have fielded her against Raman Singh. His popularity is waning. He has represented Rajnandgaon for 15 long years. People are silent but there is an undercurrent against him,” says Brijesh Sharma, a Congress functionary aiding the campaign of the party candidate, Girish Dewangan, whom people call the shadow CM for his proximity to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

Taking heart from the 2018 slide in Singh’s victory margin, the Congress has fielded CM Baghel’s closest aide in the seat.

A first generation politician in his family, Girish Devangan, in his 50s, is contesting his first election. He chairs the powerful State Mineral Development Corporation. He is also Chhattisgarh convenor for CM’s favourite project, the Rajiv Yuva Mitan scheme under which the Congress is silently creating and funding youth clubs across gram panchayats with the twin objectives of honing leadership skills and engaging youngsters as brand ambassadors for state government’s schemes.

Each club is entitled to a whopping Rs 1 lakh annual funding under the scheme seen as Baghel’s counter to BJP RSS organisational prowess.

By virtue of his roles, Dewangan, an outsider to Rajnandgaon, is getting some traction in Rajnandgaon as he goes door to door flagging Baghel’s poll pledges—caste census, housing for 17.5 lakh poor, 20 quintal paddy purchase per acre instead of 15 quintals and another farm loan waiver.

In a constituency where nearly 100 of the 230 booths are rural, Dewangan hopes to gain from Congress pro-farmer guarantees despite the dominant perception that Rajnandgaon is mainly urban.

Dewangan’s supporters say he’s no outsider to the area which is his mother’s hometown.

“We see an advantage simply because this is the first time Raman Singh is contesting this seat not as a CM face but as a former CM and sitting MLA. There is no machinery backing him, no psychological edge,” says Shubham Skukla of Congress even as BJP leaders predict a clear win for Raman Singh in his bastion.

“People here can never forget the welfare works Raman Singh did and his legacy. It was in his tenure as CM that Chhattisgarh started the work of paddy purchase, evolved a system of PDS and procured paddy upto 60 lakh metric tonnes,” Devendra Pandey, a BJP supporter says.

In vast swathes of the constituency though, voters express unhappiness at the BJP not naming Singh the CM face.

“Earlier, we knew we were voting to elect the CM. That’s not the case anymore,” is the routine refrain in the area which will be keenly watched on December 3, the result day.

Voting margins of Raman Singh in Rajnandgaon

2008: 32389

2013: 35866

2018: 16929

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