BSP leader Kanshi Ram had an emotional meeting with an unusual visitor yesterday. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi called on Kanshi Ram at Batra Hospital. With damp eyes Kanshi Ram reportedly told Jogi: ‘‘My mission is only half-accomplished. I am leaving it to you.’’The BSP leader had expressed his desire to meet Jogi when the Chief Minister’s son Amit called on him two days ago. Sources close to Jogi said Kanshi Ram became quite emotional even as Jogi hoped that he (Kanshi Ram) would soon be back and see his mission accomplished.In Chhattisgarh, where the 11 per cent Dalit population is set to play a crucial role in 25 to 30 Assembly segments, Jogi has been carefully nursing this section right from the time he became chief minister. A powerful Satnami community — comprising 80 per cent of the state’s Scheduled Caste population — has always been on Jogi’s agenda, besides Adivasis and OBCs as part of his social engineering drive.To consolidate the gains before the state goes to polls, he has cleared a multi-crore project to built a tower ‘‘Jaitkhumb’’, as high as Qutab Minar, for Satnamis. The collapse of the BSP-BJP alliance in UP has also benefited Jogi. Although the BSP proposes to go it alone in Chhattisgarh and contest all the seats, Jogi stands to gain from the development.Claims PCC spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi: ‘‘Had the Mayawati government not collapsed in UP, together they had the potential to damage the Congress. Some of the seats are vulnerable to the SC population but now that they have split, neither the BJP nor the BSP has any decisive role.’’The 90-member Assembly also has 12 seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 32 for the tribals. The BSP had won three seats in 1998 but none of its MLAs defected to the Congress. Jogi broke the BJP’s 12 MLAs in 2001.The Congress also takes satisfaction in the fact that Jogi enjoys good terms with both top BSP leaders Kanshi Ram and Mayawati. The BSP had never fielded its candidates against Jogi whenever he contested the Lok Sabha elections.Now if Mayawati comes here and campaigns, her target would certainly be the BJP, not Jogi. His meeting with Kanshi Ram yesterday has further added to the Congress’ advantage. Sitting independent MLA and Forest Minister D.P. Dhirtlahre, who belongs to the Satnami community, has already applied to the Congress for his entry into the party.In all, there are 25 to 30 Assembly seats, where the Scheduled Caste population exceeds 20,000. The BSP is actually eyeing these seats. Dau Ram Ratnakar, state BSP president and a sitting MLA said his party would field candidates for all 90 seats. ‘‘We had won three seats in 1998. This time, we see our graph going up to assume the role of king-maker in the case of a hung Assembly,’’ Ratnakar said.The SCs comprise 14 to 22 per cent of the population in districts like Raigarh, Raipur, Kawardha, Bilaspur, Mahasaund and Jangir Champa. Ratnakar claimed they have a sizeable votebank even among the OBCs, which largely had been Congress supporters.
