The Chhattisgarh legislative assembly. File pic/X
Chhattisgarh has set a record by sending the maximum number of female representatives to the assembly this year. As per official data, 19 women MLAs will represent their constituencies after the 2023 polls. This would mean about 21% of the 90-member assembly
Will Chhattisgarh have its first woman chief minister? After the Bharatiya Janata Party’s unprecedented electoral win, the state is abuzz with the question. The reason is the record that Chhattisgarh has set by sending the maximum number of female representatives to the assembly this year. As per official data, 19 women MLAs will represent their constituencies after the 2023 polls. This would mean about 21% of the 90-member assembly. The last time, there were 13 women MLAs, or 14% of the total assembly strength.
Women led the voter turnout in the state too. As per the Election Commission of India (ECI), women voters were significantly more in 50 out of the 90 constituencies. Overall, 78.12 lakh women voted in Chhattisgarh. In comparison, 77.48 lakh men turned up to cast their ballots — 64,000 less than women voters.
The ‘dark mares’
Renuka Singh: The union minister of state for tribal affairs, had stemmed the tide for the BJP in north Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja in the last Lok Sabha polls. Her win in 2019 by 1.57 lakh votes came a year after the Congress swept all 14 assembly seats in the division. On Sunday, she once again stamped her authority by defeating Congress’s Gulab Kamor and ensuring a rout for the party in Sarguja, including that of former deputy chief minister TS Singh Deo who lost by 122 votes.
The 59-year-old was a member of the social welfare board in Chhattisgarh before becoming a two-time MLA from Premnagar in the Surguja division. She lost in 2013, but her comeback in 2019 vaulted her to a ministerial position in Narendra Modi’s government.
Gomti Sai: The Raigarh MP and now MLA from Pathalgaon in Jashpur is being seen as a CM probable in Chhattisgarh.
A rising tribal politician, Sai made her foray into politics in 2005 at the panchayat level. An Anganwadi worker, in 2015 she became the head of the Jashpur zila panchayat. In 2019, she was handpicked by the BJP leadership to fight the Lok Sabha polls from Raigarh. This was a seat held by then BJP state president Vishnu Dev Sai. As an MP, locals say, Gomti Sai has made a mark by regularly raising issues of the people of Jashpur in the Lok Sabha. In the recent assembly elections, Sai beat the Congress in its bastion. Ram Kumar Singh of the Congress was a nine-time MLA from Pathalgaon whom she defeated.
Local BJP workers said that if Sai gets the top job, it will only underline that in the saffron party, it is only hard work that is rewarded.
Other contenders
The frontrunners in the Chhattisgarh CM race, however, are state BJP president Arun Sao and former chief minister Dr Raman Singh. Sao, an OBC leader from the Sahu community, is being seen as a natural fit after the exit of Bhupesh Baghel, another OBC leader. At a time when the Other Backward Classes are being wooed aggressively by all sides, Sao’s caste credentials could be an added ticked box along with the spectacular win his leadership got for the party.
Raman Singh is the most experienced and well-known face of the BJP in Chhattisgarh. The firecrackers, the laddoos, and the bouquets have not stopped at his residence since the party’s historic win. However, the corruption allegations against him and the generational change that the BJP is trying to bring about are being seen as factors going against the most experienced administrator that the party has in Chhattisgarh.
Bureaucrat-turned-politician OP Chaudhary is also in the race after Amit Shah at his Raigarh roadshow said, “Aap inhe vidhayak banaiye, bada aadmi banane ki zimmedari meri (You make him an MLA. It’s my responsibility to make him a big shot).” Chaudhary himself, however, took to his social media accounts on Sunday, requesting people not to spread rumours about him.
Kedarnath Kashyap, the Bastar face of the BJP, could be the other MLA being weighed by the central leadership of the party. Kashyap is being credited for the turnaround in Bastar by aggressively raising the issue of forced conversion of villagers.
Final decision by party awaited
BJP national president JP Nadda remained noncommittal when asked in Parliament on Monday about the CM contenders. “Baatein party ke andar samay per hongi (This issue will be discussed within the party at the right time),” he said.
As per BJP sources, observers appointed for Chhattisgarh will soon apprise the parliamentary board about the mood amongst the MLAs. The legislature party meeting is expected shortly in which the CM’s name could be announced, seconded by senior leaders of the state unit.