Chhattisgarh perfect example why Congress lost LS polls

New Delhi, May 30: Congress high command is ascertaining the reasons behind party's drubbing in recently held Lok Sabha elections.

Miffed and demoralised Rahul Gandhi is adamant on resigning from the party president post.

The Congress high command is not able to decide from where it should start analysing the humiliating defeat, and who should analyse whom. For, leaders from both young and old brigade have lost the election. Those who didn't fight election failed as state in-charges.

Rahul, who has also lost family's bastion Amethi, had promoted young leaders like party general secretary Jyotiraditya Scindia, Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev, Deepender Hooda, Milind Deora, and RPN Singh but they all were defeated.

The torchbearers of the old-brigade like Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily, Digvijaya Singh, Shelia Dikshit, Harish Rawat and Deepender Hooda have also lost the election.

Rajiv Satav, former Hingoli MP from Maharashtra and party's Gujarat in-charge, didn't contest the Lok Sabha election on the pretext of winning maximum seats for the party in the state, but he also failed.

Therefore, the party is going through a state of confusion and chaos. However, Congress high command can start analysing the performance of party-ruled states.

For example, Chhattisgarh is a perfect example why Congress didn't perform well.

When the Assembly elections were held last year then Chhattisgarh was the only state where the Congress had completely routed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government by winning 68 seats in the 90-member Assembly.

Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress president Bhupesh Baghel was rewarded with the top post by Rahul Gandhi.

It's pertinent to mention here that apart from the farm loan wavier, Congress had promised a ban on sale of liquor in the state, adding that Gram Sabhas in Scheduled areas like Surguja and Bastar will be vested with the power to decide on such a ban in these places.

The Congress had promised to impose liquor ban in a phased manner.

However, it seems that Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has completely forgotten Congress' promise.

Raipur Collector has passed an order that has increased the timing of the liquor shops in Raipur District by 2 hours.

On Tuesday, Raipur Collector (Excise) Basavaraju S passed an order and allowed 27 country liquor and 43 Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) shops of Raipur district to open at 1 A.M. instead of 12 Noon and extended the closing time from 9 P.M. to 10 P.M.

It's notable that former Raman Singh government had banned auctioning of liquor shops to the private players and it started selling liquor in the state. With the change of guard, the system has not changed.

The Chhattisgarh government has permitted district collectors to fix the timing of liquor sale in the state according to the law and order situation in their respective states.

However, the order of Raipur collector clearly mentions that the new order is being passed for increasing revenue.

Chances are that other Collectors are also likely to pass similar order to boost the revenue of the government.

Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) leader Amit Jogi alleges that Baghel government is completely in the grip of liquor mafia.

"In its second month, Baghel government increased rate of liquor; in the third month, range of liquor brands; in the fourth month, counters of liquor shops, and in the fifth month, the timing of liquor sale," says Amit Jogi.

He questions who is running Chhattisgarh government: Congress or liquor mafia?

It's notable that the powerful liquor lobby has always maintained deep-rooted connections with the Chhattisgarh governments.

A liquor king of Chhattisgarh had very close relations with former Chief Minister Raman Singh. He was looking after the election funding of the BJP. The clout of the liquor king in Raman Singh Government could be understood by the fact that he was second most powerful man after Raman Singh's secretary Aman Kumar Singh. Sources in Raipur say that the same liquor king has now become blue-eyed boy of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

The liquor ban had become a very hot poll issue during last Assembly elections as women from rural areas had come out on streets demanding a complete ban on liquor sale in the state.

The Congress' farm loan wavier promise was one of the main factors that rode the party into power after 15 years, but now Baghel government is being accused of cheating farmers.

Former Marwahi MLA Amit Jogi says that around 700 farmers of his constituencies have received loan recovery notices worth Rs 20 crore from banks.

"Farmers of the state are in distress due to the cheating of Baghel government and recovery notices of the banks. As per promise, the government did not deposit the due loan amount in the bank accounts of the farmers," says Amit Jogi.

A farmer of state's Bemetra district had committed suicide on October 8, 2018, due to the loan recovery notices from the lending bank. Despite his death, his family continued to receive loan recovery notices. When Baghel government was installed then the wife of the deceased Ramadhar Sahu had become hopeful that now the laon amount would be waived off. She has been running from pillar to post from last five months but no official of Chhattisgarh government has listened to her plight. She has knocked the doors of media and threatened to commit suicide if the loan amount is not written off.

Talking about the Congress' promise of reducing the electricity bill of consumers by 50 per cent, Amit Jogi says that instead of reducing the electricity bills Baghel government has reduced the electricity supply.