Former Chhattisgarh excise minister Kawasi Lakhma, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday on charges of profiteering to the tune of Rs 72 crore from a liquor scam, is the party’s strongest leader from Bastar region. Belonging to Konta in Sukma district, a Maoist hotbed, the tribal leader is a first-generation politician who rose to become a six-time MLA from Konta, and is known both for speaking bluntly and for remarks that often trigger controversy. His biggest brush with the headlines, however, remains the close shave he had in the Maoist attack at Jhiram Ghati on a Congress convoy ahead of the 2013 Assembly elections in which the entire state party leadership was wiped out. With Lakhma among the few survivors in the convoy, the spokesperson of the then ruling BJP, Ajay Chandrakar, had alleged a nexus between him and the Maoists, and called for a narco test on the MLA. Former Congress leader from Bastar Arvind Netam, who served as a Union minister in the Indira Gandhi Cabinet, told The Indian Express that Lakhma’s stint with electoral politics began when the party was looking for faces in Bastar ahead of the 1998 Assembly elections; Chhattisgarh was then a part of Madhya Pradesh. “His predecessor in the Konta seat was weak and we needed a strong candidate (against two-time CPI MLA Manish Kunjam). Lakhma, who was uneducated, had a good IQ and was a good orator. He also stood out as he traded in oxen (buying from Andhra Pradesh and selling them in Bastar). Most tribals at the time were either farmers or bought and sold forest produce,” Arvind Netam said. Lakhma, a sarpanch who had joined the Congress just years earlier, did not look back after that Konta election, defeating Manish Kunjam five times, including the 2023 Assembly elections, on the trot. In 2008, Kunjam did not contest. In 2018, when the Congress returned to power in Chhattisgarh after 15 years of BJP rule, Lakhma was made a minister. At the time, some had raised the fact that he could not read or write. To that, Lakhma had said, “God has given me brains… I will work for the poor and marginalised and represent their interests.” In the 2023 Assembly polls, when the BJP defeated the Congress to return to power, Lakhma and former CM Bhupesh Baghel were among the four ministers out of 13 to retain their seats. Banking on the popularity of Lakhma, the Congress fielded him in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from the Bastar seat, ahead of sitting MP Deepak Baij, who was made state party chief. Lakhma had then quipped: “Went to ask for a bride for my son, but they gave it to me.” The Congress MLA wanted the party to field his son Harish, a Janpad member, for the Lok Sabha polls. Lakhma, however, lost the Lok Sabha polls, with the BJP sweeping Chhattisgarh’s 11 seats, barring Korba. The ED first raided Lakhma’s residence on December 29 last year – almost a year after the BJP returned to power in Chhattisgarh – in connection with an alleged liquor scam worth Rs 2,161 crore under the Congress government. The ED told court that Lakhma amassed Rs 72 crore, sharing part of the money with Harish to make a Congress Bhavan and a home in Sukma. The ED has now taken Lakhma’s custody for six days saying it wanted to find out where the money went. Speaking with mediapersons after the December raid, Lakhma had said, "They asked me whether I knew anything about the liquor scam. I said I saw it on TV and the newspapers that a scam had occurred, but that it had not come to my knowledge. I am illiterate… whatever paper came in front of me was by Tripathi (co-accused Arun Pati Tripathi, then Special Secretary Government Commerce and Industry Department), I just signed it… Sometimes my PA would read the note to me, but what they made me sign on, I do not know.” Alleging politics in the allegations against him, Lakhma said: “The liquor scam probe has been on for a year, why did they not act against me back then? Now I have raised questions about faulty bridges and fake tenders, children dying at ashrams and fake encounters in the Assembly… (and the charges have come). As the local body elections are nearing, they want to defame me and hurt the Congress.” Among remarks that Lakhma has drawn flak on over the years include a promise to make roads in his constituency “as smooth as Hema Malini’s cheeks” – almost a repeat of what RJD chief Lalu Prasad had once said.
