Bigwigs fight proxy battle in Rajnandgaon

Rajnandgaon, Mar 22 (UNI) The arrest of former Chattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi on a 'private complaint' in a murder case has taken electioneering to a new pitch in the March 29 byelection to this constituency in which Chief Minister Raman Singh has high stakes.

While Mr Leelaram Bhojwani (BJP) and Mr Deovrat Singh (Cong) are engaged in a multi-corner contest, Dr Singh and Mr Jogi are using this 'battle' to consolidate their position within their respective parties with an eye on the state Assembly polls scheduled for next year.

Nearly 90 per cent of the 8,87,857 electorate, in which women outnumber men with 4,46,766 votes, belong to the rural areas.

They will decide the fate of 15 candidates in the March 29 polling for which 1,358 polling stations are being set up.

Elaborate security arrangements are being made as Communist Party of India (Maoist) cadres have their presence in the tribal areas of five assembly segments in the constituency. About 275 polling stations in these areas have been identified as 'sensitive' in view of Naxalite activities in these areas.

Various factors had made this poll important for the Chief Minister. Dr Singh's current assembly segment Dongergaon and the assembly segment of his hometown, Kawardha, falls in Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency.

Besides, Dr Singh had represented Rajnandgaon seat in the Lok Sabha, as he had won it in the 1999 polls defeating Congress heavyweight Motilal Vora.

While representing this constituency, he was a minister of state in the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.

The seat fell vacant after BJP MP Pradeep Gandhi was expelled from the Lok Sabha after his name figured in the ''cash-for-query scam''.

It was Mr Gandhi, who had vacated his Dongergaon assembly seat for Dr Singh to enable him to become a member of the assembly within six months after his election as leader of the BJP legislature party in December 2003.

It was apparently at the behest of Dr Singh that Mr Gandhi was given ticket to contest the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Rajnandgaon.

A senior BJP leader admitted that another reason for the ruling BJP having high stakes in this by-election is that its top leaders are already facing criticism from within the organisation following its candidate's defeat in the Kota assembly election where Mrs Renu Jogi, wife of former chief minister Ajit Jogi, won the seat by an impressive margin. Another defeat within a short span of four months could mean more trouble for the leadership, he added.

Electioneering was as usual and smooth till Sunday last when a large number of policemen, armed with a warrant, arrested Mr Jogi while he was busy campaigning for the party candidate Devarat Singh.

Subsequently, he was shifted to a heart hospital in state capital with high blood pressure.

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