Bhupesh Baghel returns to Lok Sabha poll fray months after Assembly election loss

Rajnandgaon is not expected to be an easy fight, with BJP candidates winning from here by a margin of over 1 lakh votes since 2009. One of the MLAs from the Assembly segments under Rajnandgaon is former BJP CM Raman Singh.

The question is can Baghel’s popularity, which was evident even on the Assembly campaign trail, as well as pro-farmer image help him win, when it didn’t aid his party four months back? The Congress won 35 seats, compared to the BJP’s 54, with Baghel winning from his MLA seat by 19,723 votes.

On a hot sunny, morning, Baghel is working the crowd travelling through Dongargarh. He stops every time he sees villagers lined up along the roads, and climbs down for selfies as well as pictures with schoolchildren and women. His supporters burst crackers and play celebratory music, amid slogans of “Kisano ka masiha, hamara kaka zinda hai (Farmers’s messiah, our uncle is alive)”.

Baghel’s campaign procession next makes a halt at a temple in a locality dominated by the Sahu community, which forms a significant chunk of the votes after those of the Satnami Samaj (Scheduled Caste) in Rajnandgaon. Baghel has been making frequent halts at their temples as well as attending their events. Later, he participates in an All India Sadguru Kabir Acharya meeting, drawing applause for his speech on Kabir’s message of peace and unity.

While the Lok Sabha contest from Rajnandgaon has been tilted heavily in favour of the BJP in the recent past, the Assembly polls have seen a tighter contest. For example, in 2018, when the BJP was fighting a 15-year anti-incumbency, the Congress collectively polled 1.53 lakh votes more than the BJP in the eight Assembly segments – Pandariya, Kawardha, Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji and Mohala-Manpur – under the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat.

While in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s Santosh Pandey won the seat by over 1.11 lakh votes, in the 2023 Assembly polls, the BJP got 30,599 votes more than the Congress in the eight Assembly seats despite the grand old party winning 5 of them. Pandey has been renominated by the BJP for the upcoming polls.

The 2018-2023 Baghel government made increased paddy procurement, at higher prices, the cornerstone of its policy, apart from waiving farmer loans worth Rs 9,000 crore. The Congress hopes this will especially be a factor in Rajnandgaon.

In his speeches, Baghel constantly harks back to the same.

At one such meeting in Dhara village of Dongargarh, he asks how the government plans to create employment.

Another common factor across his speeches is his attacks on BJP CM Vishnu Deo Sai. “They stopped making natural paint from cow dung, sai sai (quickly). They also stopped unemployment allowance, sai sai,” he says.

He speaks to voters about the need for a “strong” Opposition. “There needs to be someone in Delhi to raise their voice for you. I will fight for your development till my last breath,” he says.

Baghel reiterates his government’s work in promoting “Chhattisgarhi” and “tribal” identities and developing the Ram Van Gaman Path. A group of Muslims welcome him as he is on his way to Kanharpuri and reiterate their support to him, while admitting that their demands for a road, burial ground among others had not been fulfilled by his government.

One of the big challenges before Baghel, apart from fighting Modi’s popularity, is dealing with the dissatisfaction among party workers. Recently, at a meeting in Khuteri village, a party worker lashed out at the former CM, accusing him of being inaccessible.

Congress leaders are upbeat but cautious about Baghel’s prospects. “A positive for him is that both (BJP candidate) Pandey and Raman Singh hardly visit their constituencies,” Rajnandgaon Congress mayor Hema Deshmukh says, while admitting that Pandey has the solid backing of RSS. A Congress leader says the party needs to also focus on traders in the city, apart from farmers.