A political history of Chhattisgarh: From Ajit Jogi to Bhupesh Baghel

The present-day Chhattisgarh had been a part of the old Madhya Pradesh as it was prior to November 1, 1956. Earlier called Central Province and Berar (with capital at Nagpur), the state was renamed after the Constitution of India came into effect.

Later, following recommendations of the States Reorganisation Commission under Fazl Ali, the new Madhya Pradesh was created by merging the present-day Chhattisgarh, Vindhya Pradesh, Bhopal, almost the entire Madhya Bharat, and a tehsil named Sironj of the Kota district of Rajasthan. The Marathi-speaking districts surrounding Nagpur and Amravati were annexed to Bombay state.

As the literal meaning of Chhattisgarh is thirty-six forts, some believe it consists of three dozen erstwhile princely states, mostly tribals during Kalchuri dynasty.

The creation of Chhattisgarh

From 1956 to 2000, Madhya Pradesh had 14 Chief Ministers. Only four of these were from the Chhattisgarh region — father-son duo Ravi Shankar Shukla-Shyama Charan Shukla, Motilal Vora, and Naresh Chandra Singh. Singh was the only one from a tribal community, and he sat on the CM chair for only 12 days in 1969. Demands for a new state of Chhattisgarh, and also Gondwana, were being raised for decades.

In the 1998 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP promised in its manifesto that it would “carve out Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand), Vananchal (now Jharkhand), Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh as separate States.”

After the party came to power, Chhattisgarh was created with 16 districts, 11 Lok Sabha and five Rajya Sabha seats, and 90 Assembly seats. Nearly one-third of its population consisted of tribals. When it was first created, 34 of the 90 Assembly seats were reserved for tribals. After delimitation, 29 of the 90 seats are reserved for them and 10 for Scheduled Castes. The state now has 33 districts.

Coronation of Ajit Jogi

As the new state was being created, many were active to take credit for it. Prominent among them was Vidya Charan Shukla, son of first Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Ravishankar Shukla. In May 1999, Vidya Charan had formed the Chhattisgarh Rajya Sangharsh Morcha.

When MP was divided, the CM of the undivided state was Digvijaya Singh. Out of the 90 seats that had gone to the new state, Congress had 48 MLAs. After the new state was born, in a meeting of the Congress legislature party in Raipur, Ajit Jogi was elected its leader.

On November 9, 2000, Jogi was sworn in as the first CM of Chhattisgarh. An IAS officer who had served as collector of districts like Raipur, Indore and Sidhi, Jogi had joined the Congress in 1986 on the advice of then MP CM Arjun Singh. After becoming the CM, he engineered a defection in the BJP and managed to make 13 of its MLAs join Congress.

In the first Assembly polls held in 2003, Congress was a divided lot. Vidya Charan Shukla could not adjust with Jogi and had revolted to join the Sharad Pawar-headed NCP. In the polls, while NCP could win only one seat, the 7.02 per cent votes it secured reduced Congress to 37 seats. The BJP got the majority with 50 seats.

Jogi could not digest this defeat, and news broke that he was trying to buy MLAs to get a majority. This caused huge embarrassment to the party leadership. Though Jogi was active in politics till almost his death in May 2020 — sometimes with Congress, sometimes his own party Janta Congress Chhattisgarh — he could never regain the clout he once enjoyed.

Raman Singh’s era from 2003

While the first BJP president of the new state was prominent OBC leader Tarachand Sahu, after the Jogi-engineered defection, the party top bosses were unhappy with him and then Minister of State at the Centre Raman Singh was sent to replace Sahu. The 2003 Assembly polls were won under the leadership of Raman Singh and he was sworn in as new CM.

Raman Singh gestures after his third victory in the 2013 Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly polls, outside the state’s BJP party office in the capital city of Raipur. (Express photo by Oinam Anand)

In the 2008 polls, his scheme of free distribution of rice helped him. Also, though Vidya Charan Shukla had returned to Congress (after briefly joining the BJP as well), in the 2008 polls, Jogi’s camp within Congress allegedly managed to defeat many of his opponent Congress leaders, and BJP retained its tally of 50 seats.

Naxal attack of 2013

While statehood for Chhattisgarh had generated hope of all-round development, what also saw a rise in the state was Naxalism.

On May 25, 2013, a few months before state polls, Maoists ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders in Bastar district. Twenty-seven people were killed, including state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh, senior Congress leader Mahendra Karma and ex-MLA Uday Mudaliyar. Vidya Charan was injured and died later.

The BJP won the subsequent polls with 49 seats, and the Congress secured 39. In the meantime, Raman Singh established his son in politics, who won the Lok Sabha poll in 2014 from Rajnandgaon.

By the 2018 Assembly polls, the tide was turning against Raman Singh. He had been discredited among BJP workers for advancing his family, had many enemies within the state and central BJP leadership, and was also facing anti-incumbency after a 15-year run.

Return of Congress, arrival of Bhupesh Baghel

After losing three consecutive Assembly polls and the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Congress was now preparing well. After Mahendra Karma was killed, the party first appointed Charan Das Mahant as the state chief, and then, within a few months, the OBC leader Bhupesh Baghel was appointed in his place.

For the 2018 polls, Congress devised a new strategy, putting in place new leaders. The BJP’s struggles gave it more steam, and it won the polls with a historic majority of 68 seats. The BJP managed to win only 15 seats.

Baghel was sworn in as the Chief Minister on December 17, 2018. His promises for farm-loan waiver and best prices for crops to farmers worked in his favour.

Now the state is again heading towards polls. The results will be crucial for the careers of both Baghel and Singh.