Bastar holds 12 seats which are tribal dominated and for the last few years it has been a stronghold of the BJP that currently holds but all one seat.
It was a face-off in Bastar. Bhartiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday held rallies in the region. While Gandhi spoke at Kondagaon in north Bastar, Modi addressed rally in Jagdalpur.
Bastar holds 12 seats which are tribal dominated and for the last few years it has been a stronghold of the BJP that currently holds but all one seat.
While delivering his speech, he saluted the people of Chhattisgarh for rejecting Congress government. “You (voters) saved Chhattisgarh by voting BJP back to power,” he said.
He did not speak about himself as he had done last time when all the party members met for the party convention in the state. Hekept chief minister Raman Singh star of the show and lauded his government for the good work in the state.
Modi said the state has progressed under the BJP, while Jharkhand and Uttarakhand which were formed together with Chhattisgarh, could not prosper as Congress governments were also elected there. “Why did Chhattisgarh progress while Uttarakhand and Jharkhand were left behind? Because Congress ruled the two states,” he said. Jharkhand has immense natural resources but could not progress because of political instability, he added.
Chhattisgarh progressed because people reposed faith in the Raman Singh-led BJP government, he said. Modi accused Congress of treating Chhattisgarh as a picnic spot.
“Congress doesn’t care about the tribals in Northeast. (AB) Vajpayeeji formed a separate ministry for tribals in Union cabinet,” he said.
The speech, compared to Sonia Gandhi’s in Kondagaon, was equally less on fire.
As many as 18 constituencies spread over eight districts in south Chhattisgarh will witness voting on November 11 while the remaining 72 segments will go into polls on November 19. As many as 985 candidates are in the fray for 90 seats.
