Ajit Jogi’s party, AAP to contest all 90 seats in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR/BILASPUR: Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress Chhattisgarh and Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party are all set to queer the political pitch in Chhattisgarh, which has so far largely seen a direct contest between the BJP and the Congress.

The two entrants have decided to field candidates in all 90 seats in what is expected to be a tight election – the difference in the vote share of BJP and Congress was 0.7% in the 2013 election. Both Janta Congress Chhattisgarh and AAP court mainly the same voters as the Congress in the rural and largely tribal belt. Jogi, a tribal leader, has a rapport with people that reverberates across several districts.

Forty-five year old Manisha, a resident of Kewtara village of Bilaspur district, told ET: “We have got only lip service when it comes to welfare measures. You give us farming equipment, if you give us rice, then a promise of gas and our own home – but do you even see whether these schemes are being implemented on the ground? Nothing moves here. There is no employment in a village like ours which is largely dependent on agriculture.”


Families in this village and across the district move out after Diwali in search of employment and go to nearby states of Maharashtra and Gujarat to look for work. However, the problem for Jogi’s party remains how to translate the disenchantment of people into votes, a challenge he openly admits.