Congress and BJP trying to win over old guards in a tough electoral battle in Chhattisgarh

New Delhi, Oct 13: With the announcement of Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh along with some other states, leaders from different political parties are looking for space from where they can contest elections and win. Political parties are also looking for leaders who have the chances of wining election so even long-time forgotten leaders are being called. The situation in the Congress is even critical which does not only lack leadership but also workers in the ground. So they are are trying win back their old forgotten leaders.

Political parties are trying to woo their old leaders. So a senior tribal leader of the Congress and former Lok Sabha member Arvind Netam has joined the Congress after a very long gap. He has been appointed as member of election coordination committee. Some other leaders in the state too have joined the Congress like Vinod Tiwari, Vani Rao and Mahendra Bahadur Singh. There is a long list of other Congress leaders coming back to the party fold.

Some of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are also coming back to party fold with a party rebel and former minister Ganesh Ram Bhagat, who has been working for reconversion (Ghar Wapsi), has come back to the BJP fold. BJP joint-national organising secretary Saudan Singh met with Bhagat. Some other leaders are also in the line of coming back to their original party both in the Congress and the BJP.

Vijay Baghel, nephew of state Congress chief Piyush Baghel, may also return to the Congress fold who is with the BJP at the moment. He defeated Piyush in the state assembly election in 2008. Vijay is an old Congressmen and due to wrong distribution of ticket he had quit the party.

But the Congress in Chhattisgarh in shreds with two splits since the state came into existence. In the year 2002, the old Congressman Vidya Charan Shukla parted ways from the Congress and took along huge number of Congressmen. He had joined the BJP in 2004 but came back to party later. The second split was done by former chief minister of state Ajit Jogi and he formed a regional party and will be contesting 2018 Assembly elections in alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Congress is fearful about Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) joining hands with BSP as Jogi has some influence in the tribal area and along with the BSP, he may damage the chances of the Congress. The alliance is likely to neutralise the anti-incumbency in the state.