Chhattisgarah polls: Congress to revisit Forest Rights Act to build pro-tribal image

NEW DELHI: Eyeing the crucial tribal votebank in poll-bound Chhattisgarah, Congress is set to unveil a targeted campaign “Jungle Satyagraha” to position itself as a pro-tribal rights party.

Jungle Satyagraha would cover all 29 Scheduled Tribes reserved Assembly segments. The campaign is designed to take to the people Congress-led UPA government’s achievements, including enactment of Forest Rights Act, which gave legal entitlement to STs to the forest land they have been inhabiting for decades.

The campaign would involve taking out motorcycle rallies and propagate these achievements. Apart from the reserved Assembly segments, the campaign would also be taken to 42 Assembly constituencies which have more than 10 per cent Scheduled Tribes population.


A senior Congress functionary told ET, “Over all 71 of the 90 Assembly constituencies would have this special tribal-centric campaign.

We would rope in our tribal youth workers who would take out these motorcycle rallies from village to village.” Tribals comprise a sizeable – 32 per cent – of the population in Chhattisgarh. In 2008 Assembly elections, BJP had cornered 19 of the 29 reserved seats and Congress had bagged 10. The Congress reversed the trend as it made in-roads in the votebank in 2013 elections bagging 18 of the 29 reserved seats and BJP got 11.

The party hopes to improve its performance through a targeted approach, which includes a separate manifesto in tribal-dominated constituencies. This includes promising improved MSP for more number of minor forest produce (MFP), which are collected by tribals and are a source of income for 5 crore tribals approximately.