Guaranteed win? BJP scores 5th straight victory

RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh has never disappointed BJP in Lok Sabha elections. It stood by it yet again on Saturday when the saffron camp was looking for numbers.

While neighbouring MP handed over all 29 seats to BJP, the saffron camp looked headed for victory in 10 of the 11 seats in Chhattisgarh at 9pm, Korba being the lone Congress victory.

BJP has always dominated in parliamentary polls in Chhattisgarh, winning 10 seats each in 2004, 2009 and 2014, and nine in 2019. Now, it’s back to 10.

Chhattisgarh is a healing win for BJP after setbacks in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and also puts first-time chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai on a stronger footing. After unseating Congress in the assembly elections in Nov last year, the thumping Lok Sabha election results indicate that Sai, the state’s first tribal CM, has succeeded in consolidating BJP’s position and his own stature in the party.

Building on the momentum of the 2023 assembly polls, BJP won Naxal-hit Bastar and Kanker. In Bastar, BJP’s Mahesh Kashyap defeated former Congress minister Kawasi Lakhma by over 55,000 votes. Kanker went down to the wire and BJP scraped through by 1,884 votes.

BJP’s win in Bastar division is significant because it comes in the wake of the most sustained anti-Maoist offensive in two decades — 118 Maoists have been eliminated in just five months.

Former Congress CM Bhupesh Baghel, too, had to bite the dust in Rajnandgaon. He was trailing by over 44,400 votes against BJP sitting MP Santosh Pandey. On Monday, the eve of results, Baghel had alleged discrepancies in serial numbers of EVMs in Rajnandgaon, saying the numbers given by EC before voting didn’t match with those on Form 17C.

In Raipur, minister Brijmohan Agrawal had an unassailable lead of over 5.2 lakh votes, and in Durg BJP sitting MP Vijay Baghel was leading his Congress rival by 4.2 lakh votes.

CM Sai thanked BJP workers for putting up a winning show. He admitted that NDA didn’t meet expectations in some states but pointed out that it did exceptionally well in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. “Once again we are going to form govt under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
“Modi guarantee has resonated across the country. Beneficial schemes of the state and Centre have had a positive impact. Certainly, better results will be achieved in the future,” he said.

State Congress president Deepak Baij acknowledged that the election results in Chhattisgarh did not meet their expectations but drew solace from INDIA bloc’s strong show elsewhere.
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