THE BJP has sharpened its Hindutva push in Chhattisgarh, with a group of hardline candidates forming the vanguard of the party’s charge. These include a prime accused in the 2021 Kawardha communal violence, the father of a victim of a communal riot, and a former minister who is the face of the party’s campaign against religious conversions. The list includes two members of the family of the late Dilip Singh Judeo, a leader with RSS and VHP links known for the Ghar Wapsi campaign ("re-converting" people to Hinduism) he ran for over four decades. Denouncing the BJP list, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said, "They may try lakhs of times, but this (communal card) can't be an issue." In the state where more than 90% of the population is Hindu, with Muslims and Christians nearly equal at around 2% each, the BJP can expect the Hindutva plank to help it in 51 of the total 90 seats. Out of the 85 candidates announced by the party already, none is a Muslim. Plus, with the anti-conversion pitch, it can expect polarisation to help it in tribal-dominated areas like Bastar. Further toeing the Hindutva line, the BJP's Chhattisgarh in-charge and MP, Arun Sao, described the Congress state government as “Bhupesh, Akbar aur Dhebar ki sarkar”. The taunt was towards Raipur Mayor Aijaz Dhebar, whose brother Anwar is touted as the kingpin of a Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam, and minister Mohammad Akbar, blamed by the BJP for the Kawardha incident. To underline the point, the BJP has fielded Vijay Sharma - one of the prime accused in the Kawardha incident - against Akbar, who is a four-time MLA. A former district in-charge of Kawardha and a BJP state general secretary, Sharma was chargesheeted with 81 others for "destroying public property and rioting", and spent two months in jail. Several calls to Sharma on Wednesday went unanswered. Similarly, Ishwar Sahu, father of Bhuneshwar, who was killed during communal violence in Bemetara district in August this year, has been given a ticket from Saja in Bemetara against seven-time MLA and Minister Ravindra Choubey. After Sahu’s death in the violence, the BJP had taken out a rally in Bemetara and called for a Chhattisgarh bandh, during which a Muslim father-son were killed. Ishwar, a farmer who had no political aspirations before this, told mediapersons on getting the ticket, “I'm thankful to the BJP and will give it my best.” Judeo's family members have got tickets from Kota in Bilaspur district and Chandrapur in Janjgir Champa district. The late leader's 12 ft-tall statue in Jashpur district had been inaugurated by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat last year, incicating his importance for the Sangh. Judeo's son Prabal Pratap Singh has got the BJP ticket from Kota, while Prabal’s sister-in-law Sanyogita Singh Judeo has got the Chandrapur ticket for the second straight time, though she lost in 2018. Earlier, her late husband Yudhvir Singh Judeo was a two-time sitting MLA from Chandrapur. In Narayanpur district, former minister and BJP leader Kedar Kashyap, who lost in 2018 by a narrow margin of 2,647 votes, is riding on the tribal conversion issue. In January this year, a local BJP leader had been arrested for rioting in Narayanpur, during a protest against alleged conversions. BJP MLAs had later submitted a representation in the Vidhan Sabha over the alleged conversion of tribals. The Congress has criticised the BJP ticket to tribal Christian Prabodh Minj from Lundra in Surguja as vote-bank politics and a sign of the party's "hypocrisy". Minj told The Indian Express, “My ancestors converted to Christianity. The BJP is against conversion if it is done using force, pressure or temptation." He added that he had been in the BJP for 25 years. "If elected, I'll work on building a big mandi and better roads in my constituency.”
