The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to push ‘Hindutva’ in the constituencies in the plains of Chhattisgarh, which have seen communal violence in the last two years. Under this, the party has given ticket to a riot victim on one assembly seat and to a riot accused on the other. In the list released on Monday, Ishwar Sahu, father of deceased Bhuvaneshwar Sahu, who was killed in a communal clash in Biranpur village in Durg district in April, has been fielded against minister of state Ravindra Choubey in Saja constituency.
The party has given ticket to Vijay Sharma, who was one of the riot accused in Kawardha violence (October 2021) against another senior minister of the state, Mohammad Akbar. On Monday, BJP released its second list of 64 candidates. Which also includes former Chief Minister Raman Singh, who will contest elections from Rajnandgaon. With this, the party has announced the names of 85 candidates for the 90-member seats. The first list of 21 candidates was released on August 17 while candidates for five seats are yet to be announced.
Although Congress has not yet released its list of candidates, both Choubey and Akbar have been fighting from their constituencies for a long time. The Birnapur violence took place in April 2023 in which Muslim youth killed Bhuvaneshwar Sahu over a minor dispute. Two days later, two Muslims—father and son—were killed by a Hindu mob. In October 2021, violence broke out in Kawardha over a religious flag, in which Raman Singh’s son Abhishek Singh, Rajnandgaon MP Santosh Pandey, Vijay Sharma and others were made accused.
Police claim that a case has been registered against more than 100 people in the Kawardha violence. Since some people have not been arrested yet, the trial has not started in the court yet. He said, ‘Both seats are important for us. We believe that by giving ticket to Ishwar Sahu, we will take care of both Hindu and Sahu voters in the plains. Whereas Kawardha violence is the biggest incident in recent times in that area. We have been raising the issue of these incidents of violence including the Christian conversion violence of Narayanpur in every meeting.
A BJP leader said that Ishwar Sahu has never contested any election and is not a political person, but his candidature will definitely help the party. BJP has big plans for Ishwar Sahu for the upcoming elections. It is noteworthy that in Chhattisgarh, Sahu constitute about 12 percent, which is the largest share of any OBC in the state. When asked whether BJP was trying to raise the issue of communal violence in Biranpur (Bemetara district) by fielding local villager Ishwar Sahu, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said communal violence is not an issue in Chhattisgarh.
Experts believe that BJP is strategically trying to set a strong Hindutva narrative in Durg region, which could have an impact on at least 10 seats. Harsh Dubey, a political commentator from Chhattisgarh, said, ‘BJP’s ticket distribution shows that they are trying to establish ‘Hindutva’ especially in Kawardha, Bemetara belt. In the last four years, two incidents of communal clashes took place in this area. In one incident, Bhuvaneshwar Sahu was allegedly beaten to death and now BJP has given ticket to his father Ishwar Sahu. Similarly, from Kawardha seat, which is represented by another senior cabinet minister Mohammed Akbar, BJP has fielded former ABVP state president and party general secretary Vijay Sharma, who has the image of an aggressive Hindu leader.