Assembly elections: Social welfare schemes helped Raman Singh in Chhattisgarh

NEW DELHI: In Naxalite-infested Narayanpur, tribals haven’t heard of Narendra Modi or Nehru-Gandhi family. They know Ajit Jogi as a leader and then they know ‘Chawal wale baba’. Some call him Singh, some Raman.

“His social welfare schemes helped him scrape through,” says Raipur-based activist Samir Garg who has kept tabs on Chief Minister Raman Singh’s populist schemes. “He is seen as non-controversial and do-gooder,” he declares.

Even when he realised that the polls would be a cliff-hanger, Singh exuded confidence. When Congress announced free rice and power for poor families his retort was that he was providing nutritional security. Singh was convinced that the salt, rice and chana his government distributed almost free gave him an edge over Congress.

Singh had told ET earlier that he had multiple achievements to flaunt, including the PDS lauded by renowned economist Jean Dreze. Singh also takes pride in the big leap in power sector although he there is a huge slide in demand as various companies and states scale down projects amid sluggish growth.

Aggressive ad blitz and efforts to be seen as a doer cut both ways, though. Arvind Jha, a Bhilai-based lawyer, contends that Singh had to incur middle-class anger, besides anti-incumbency, over his populist schemes driving up labour costs.

For his part, Garg says, despite the narrow victory, Singh’s reputation is only expected to rise – though he may not rise to the level of MP counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan or Modi – because, “the winner takes it all.”