Diwali came for a second time in the Chhattisgarh BJP headquarters and premises of BJP supporters on Sunday. Amidst sounds of firecrackers, dhols, and slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”, Bharatiya Janata Party workers reminded that union home minister Amit Shah had declared three Diwalis for Chhattisgarh if the BJP came to power. The announcement was made from the campaign stage of Jagdalpur. On Sunday, the Jagdalpur and Bastar divisions played a huge role in the prophecy coming true.
Out of the 12 seats in the Bastar division, the Congress could hold on to only four. Even state congress chief Deepak Baij was shown the red flag by the voters of Chitrakote. In 2018, the Congress had swept Bastar, winning 11 out of the 12 seats, and later bagged Dantewada too in bypolls.
On Sunday, it lost Jagdalpur, Chitrakote, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Kanker, and Antagarh.
Kawasi Lakma won Konta (Sukma) by 1,981 votes, making him a six-time MLA from the seat. Chavindra Karma, son of Mahendra Karma, who was killed in the 2013 Darbha Ghati Naxal attack, also lost to the BJP. Bijapur, which is the second most Naxal-affected district after Sukma, also saw a Congress win.
Anti-Naxal operations, development exercise
The BJP credited the development that has been brought about in Bastar after the anti-Naxal operations for the big victory in these areas. “In both Bastar and Sarguja, we have carried out massive development. The people have recognised that and voted for us,” former Chhattisgarh chief minister Dr Raman Singh told News18.
In the past two years, 65 new security camps have been set up in the Bastar division. These camps have ensured road building, mobile towers, and general infrastructure in erstwhile Maoist-dominated areas.
The BJP had claimed that the Congress was not participating enough in the security measures followed by the development approach of the Centre.
Union home minister Amit Shah had accused the Congress of encouraging Maoists and claimed that incidents of Naxal violence decreased by 52% in the nine-year rule of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. “In nine years of the Modi-led government, incidents of violence declined by 52%, deaths (in Naxal violence) came down by 70%, civilian deaths decreased by 68%, while the Naxal-affected districts declined by 62%,” Shah said at a rally in Jagdalpur in October.
Centre’s Bastar push
In February, at a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Left-Wing Extremism, Amit Shah revealed that since 2019, security forces have made significant strides by establishing 175 new camps in LWE-affected areas.
On the development front, the union government has implemented several initiatives such as road construction for better mobility, mobile tower installation for communication, enhancing the network of banks and post offices, and improving healthcare and educational facilities.
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