Congress’ ambition to dislodge the Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh is likely to hit major road-blocks emerging from within the party. Party leaders have alleged that poor candidate selection, giving tickets allegedly in lieu of monetary considerations and controversy generated by its own state chief Bhupesh Baghel are likely to turn the tide in Singh’s favour and pave the way for his return to power in the state where he has been the Chief Minister for 15 years.
The Sunday Guardian has accessed audio recordings of conversations between different state Congress leaders, in which it is clear that many of the aspirants, whose names have been sent to the party’s national president Rahul Gandhi by leaders entrusted with the task of short-listing probable nominees, have been chosen on the basis of criteria other than “win-ability”. The recordings clearly show that tickets are being distributed for considerations in “cash or kind”.
In one such conversation, a top state leader is heard boasting to a party functionary about how his “recommendations” are never vetoed by Gandhi’s office, and thus if his demands are fulfilled, he will make sure that the functionary gets a ticket to contest the elections. Similarly, in a conversation between two party functionaries, one of them is heard telling the other, how some aspirants were exploiting the “weak moral compass” of a top state leader to extract tickets.
Congress’ state communications head, Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, however, denied any wrongdoing during candidate selection and said that the ruling BJP was “spreading such rumours as it has realised that it is going to lose the elections”. He claimed, “We are getting the support of the middle class, businessmen, urban voters, teachers as each of these segments is angry with the BJP. All the CD-related incidents that have happened in the recent past are the handiwork of the BJP to defame our party leaders including Baghel.”
“Recently, a CD featuring a BJP leader had come out, which, as facts proved later, was the handiwork of another BJP leader. The source of all such CDs is BJP, in which it is being helped by Ajit Jogi. As far as candidate selection is concerned, due process is being followed to give tickets, in which everyone from the block president, district president to the district committee is being consulted. A team of coordinators has been appointed for this purpose and is interacting with booth presidents,” Trivedi claimed.
“Two AICC functionaries are going to every district and meeting a large number of party workers to decide who the best candidate will be. Apart from that, we have done independent surveys. The screening committee is meeting everyone concerned before deciding on a candidate for the seat. If this is the elaborate process that we are following while deciding a candidate, then how can one say that tickets are not being given to winning candidates?” he asked.
An SMS sent to Baghel by this correspondent seeking his response on the issue has not elicited any reply so far.
As per a survey carried out by the State Intelligence Bureau, the Congress is likely to win around two-third of the 90 seats as the BJP is “facing massive anti-incumbency from the voters and anger from the ground level party workers”. However, this projection was done on the basis of a survey carried out before tickets were given. Hence this is likely to change once the tickets are given and “good candidates” are not given nominations, said an official who took part in the exercise.
Baghel, according to party leaders, has generated a lot of negativity because of his recent “conduct”, after which Rahul Gandhi, on 11 October, was forced to appoint a seven-member “core committee” comprising senior state leaders including Baghel to monitor the election campaigning in the state. However, this step is said to have come too late for the party.