Baghel versus Baghel is one of the most contested battles of the Chhattisgarh assembly election. But this isn’t the first time that uncle Bhupesh and nephew Vijay have been pitted against each other — the two have gone head-to-head in 2003, 2008, and 2013.
Bhupesh has won two of three contests but Vijay beat him in 2008 by a margin of 7,842 votes.
In 2019, six months into Bhupesh’s first tenure as CM, Vijay won his Durg parliamentary seat by over 3 lakh votes. In Patan alone, Vijay had secured over 30,000 votes.
Five-time MLA Bhupesh contested, and won, his first assembly election from Patan in 1993 — that is, since before Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh.
Both Baghels are Kurmis — a dominant OBC caste group in the state that, along with Sahus, reportedly form 36 percent of the state’s population.
The Chhattisgarh Congress had gone to the elections on the back of Baghel’s government’s marquee schemes, such as the Godhan Nyay Yojana, a scheme that entails procurement of cow dung at Rs 2/ kg from cattle-rearers, and Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Bhomihin Krishi Majdoor Krishi Nyay Yojna, which provides yearly financial assistance to the families of landless agricultural labourers in the state’s rural areas.
In the runup to the elections, the Congress has promised farm loan waivers and paddy procurement at Rs 3,200/ quintal.
On the other hand, the BJP’s election strategy involves targeting the Baghel government on the issues of corruption, implementation of welfare schemes, and not fulfilling promises from its 2018 manifesto — including liquor prohibition.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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