Just about a kilometre away is a dry pond. Villagers laugh when they point towards it. “We have never had water in this,” they say speaking about this pond which was dug under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). They complain about hefty electricity bills, unpaid MGNREGA wages and of remaining uncovered under the PM Awas Yojana. Brij Lal, a resident of Chhindwarpara village in the same block, says development schemes have never reached them. But what has excited them the most in this election is Congress’ Mahalakshmi scheme which promises ₹1 lakh per year to women of every poor family.
Listed as one of the aspirational districts by NITI Aayog, Korba is a study of contrasts.
All development is centred around the town, which is home to state and private company-run power plants. But move a bit further on the highway towards Ambikapur and people complain about the benefit of schemes remaining elusive.
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This election, Korba, one of the 11 parliamentary seats in Chhattisgarh, has become the hot seat presenting a Bhabhi vs Didi fight. It was one of the only two seats in the state which had bucked the Modi wave in 2019 and had been won by Congress. Congress has once again fielded MP Jyotsna Mahant (fondly known as Bhabhi as she is the wife of Leader of Opposition Charandas Mahant). She is up against BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Saroj Pandey or “Saroj Didi”, who hails from Durg and has been the Durg mayor. Congress has now hinged its entire campaign on this — Outsider vs Your Own. Campaigning for his wife, Mahant says, “Who would you want to take your voice to Delhi? An outsider will never understand your problems.” BJP, however, has termed Jyotsna Mahant as an “absent MP”. “Even I couldn’t find her in the House (Lok Sabha). Where was she?” home minister Amit Shah said while speaking at a rally in Katghora on May 1.