Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed an election rally in the Naxalite-hit Kanker district in election-bound Chhattisgarh. He attacked Congress and emphasised how the BJP decided to back the daughter of a tribal family, the President of the country but Congress decided to oppose it.
Attacking Congress at the rally, he said, "For the first time in history, BJP decided to make the daughter of a tribal family the President, but Congress opposed it. They carried out propaganda against her. This protest of Congress was not against BJP but against the tribal daughters."
"The election is not just to elect an MLA, or Chief Minister, but it is an election to decide your and your children's future," he said. He added, "The people of the state and BJP worked together for the formation of Chhattisgarh. Till the time the Congress government ruled they kept fighting with the BJP government here. But we still worked for the development of the state."
Attacking the Congress govt, he said, "You have seen the failure of the Congress government in the last five years. In these years only Congress leaders and their relatives saw development in their assets as their number of bungalows and cars increased. What did the poor, Dalit, backward, tribal families of Kanker and Bastar get?"
He further said, "Congress gave dilapidated roads and poorly conditioned hospitals and schools to the people of Chhattisgarh. Congress set a new record for bribery in the government offices."
Notably, Kanker district will go to polls in the first phase of two-phased polls in the state.
According to a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary, the Prime Minister will arrive in an Indian Air Force aircraft at the Raipur airport at 12.55 pm on Thursday and will leave for Kanker in a helicopter. His rally is scheduled to be held at 3 pm in Kanker town.
Police said a massive security cover has been put in place at the rally venue. A multi-layered security blanket, involving personnel of the state police and paramilitary force besides the Special Protection Group (SPG), has been put in place in the area, located around 150 km from Raipur in the north Bastar region.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will also be campaigning in the Rajnandgaon and Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki districts of the state on Thursday.
Chhattisgarh Assembly elections
The polling in Chhattisgarh will take place in two phases. The first phase of polling for 20 seats in Chhattisgarh will take place on November 7, 2023. The remaining 70 seats in the state will go to polls on November 17. The counting of votes will take place on December 3. The tenure of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end on 3 January 2024.
After being in power for 15 years (2003-2018) under the leadership of Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh, the BJP suffered a massive defeat in the 2018 assembly elections at the hands of Congress and now it is looking to come back to power in the state.
In the last polls, the Congress won 68 of the total 90 assembly seats, while the BJP finished a distant second at 15. The Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J), founded by former CM late Ajit Jogi, bagged five seats and its ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won in two segments.
The BJP currently has 13 seats in the House, JCC(J) has 3 and the BSP has 2 seats. One seat is currently lying vacant. The Congress is aiming to win 75 seats in 2023 by riding high on the popularity of Baghel, who has a significant hold over OBC and rural voters, and the impact of the government's welfare schemes focused on farmers, tribals and the poor.
Also Read: Chhattisgarh election: Kharge targets PM Modi, says he does not want poor get power
(With PTI inputs)
