Sway JCC-BSP votes, manage a divided house: Cong, BJP's winning formula for LS polls in Chhattisgarh

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In the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, the ruling government had been dethroned by a margin that, party leaders from both the sides had admitted, neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Congress had anticipated.

Congress had swept through the two-phase election, winning 68 of the 90 seats, leaving the BJP with only 15— exactly the number of years that the saffron party had ruled the state until that point. The landslide was historic in the state's short history, and had left the BJP speechless but not without explanation.

"False promises," Pankaj Jha, a BJP leader in the state told Moneycontrol when asked why the party lost during the Assembly polls. "I mean, false promises of the Congress. Their manifesto was full of promises which they cannot fulfill," Jha clarified. "That is one of the biggest reasons that we identify for the BJP's defeat in the elections," Jha said.

The Congress, according to party leaders, is banking on exactly those promises, apart from activating its grassroots worker base again, particularly to attract the votes that went to Ajit Jogi's Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

"We secured three-fourth majority during the Assembly polls. We are now planning to consolidate that support base together," Congress spokesperson Shailesh Trivedi told Moneycontrol. "Moreover, the vote difference between BJP and Congress was 10 percent. The rest went the JCC-BSP coalition way. We are planning to attract those voters, and they will shift back to Congress during the Lok Sabha polls, we are confident of that," he added.

For the grassroots-level workers, Trivedi explained, the party is starting 'Sankalp Shibirs', which not only train booth-level workers who were "instrumental in reaching out to every door in every village" during the state elections, but also impart training on those working under these booth-level leaders.

"We have already started campaigning; we are starting with Sankalp Shibirs, we are in the process of activating our frontal organisations, devising strategies for different groups. We are very organised," Trivedi said, adding that the focal point would be to make people understand what the Congress government has improved in the short period that it has been in power in the state.

"The work that we have done after coming to power — for instance, loan waiver, buying of farmers' produce at Rs 25 per quintal and increasing cost of tendu from Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,500... all these things will be highlighted by us," Trivedi said.

"Moreover, the BJP is a divided house in Chhattisgarh. They are going through a chaotic period, there's a lot of infighting," Trivedi said, underlining his point that the real challenge is to sway the JCC-BSP vote bank rather than worrying about the BJP.

Jha admits that the saffron party has witnessed some level of infighting.

"Yes, after the defeat, there are some problems here and there. There are places where the BJP worker gets emotional, and BJP workers are a little bit more emotional and passionate. It keeps on happening, it happens in families too. BJP is a family and these are fights within the family," Jha said, adding that when compared to Congress, BJP's infighting is manageable.

"The vote of the farmer and Scheduled Tribe (ST) might have gone to Congress in state elections, but it always goes to the BJP during Lok Sabha polls," Jha said, adding that Narendra Modi's "development agenda" will help the BJP secure most of the 11 Parliamentary seats in the state. "We haven't received detailed instructions regarding the campaigning as of yet, but whatever the central leadership decides, we will follow orders," he said.