National

Tough fight ahead in Dantewada

— Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

TARGETS OPPOSITION: AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi with the former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi (in the foreground), after addressing an election meeting in Jagdalpur in the naxal-affected Bastar district on Monday.

DANTEWADA: A tough fight is in the offing in this Assembly segment in Chhattisgarh, where the election is being fought on the issue of naxalism like elsewhere in the Bastar division.

Voters believe that the contest is essentially between the Congress and the Communist Party of India, but there seems to be support for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Salwa Judum-affected rehabilitation camps.

Both the Congress and the BJP are openly attacking the CPI for supporting the naxal movement and are accusing its candidate Manish Kunjan of being a naxal sympathiser. Denying, Mr. Kunjan said such allegations had been levelled against him for long. “I am opposed to the [anti-naxal] Salwa Judum movement and the entry of multinationals into Bastar,” he said.

For the Congress and the BJP, naxalism is the only issue.

People are talking about the former Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, extending covert support to the CPI candidate, and about Chief Minister Raman Singh’s sympathy for Congress nominee Mahendra Karma. The common thread binding the two is the Salwa Judum.

Mr. Karma is the pioneer of the Salwa Judum movement, which was subsequently “adopted” by the Chhattisgarh government.

Mr. Karma, a sitting MLA from Dantewada, has been a seasoned politician from the region for more than two decades. He was a strong contender for Chief Minister when Chhattisgarh was formed in 2000. However, Mr. Jogi got the top slot and since then relations between the two have been far from pleasant.

Mr. Karma has represented this Assembly several times. In fact, he began his political career as MLA in 1980 on CPI ticket. He subsequently lost the seat to his brother, who was a Congress candidate. Since 1952 the constituency has elected three independents and the CPI candidates thrice and, during the Janata Party wave, the seat went that way but the Congress won it subsequently.

So far the voters here have never returned a BJP candidate but this time the party is making inroads into the region. Salwa Judum is expected to work in favour of its nominee, Bhima Mandavi. For, the people in rehabilitation camps believe that it is the BJP that has provided them succour by way of shelter, rice at Rs. 3 a kg and cheap salt. Importantly, many children are being sent to Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram schools for free education. These schools are being run by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which played an important role in the BJP’s victory in the tribal belt in the previous Assembly and general elections.

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