‘BJP gets votes only due to Modi, and this time there is no Modi wave’: Congress Bastar candidate

After the shock loss in the Assembly elections, the Congress is looking to revive its electoral fortunes in Chhattisgarh in the Lok Sabha polls. It is also hoping to better its 2019 performance, when the party won just 2 of the 11 seats in the state.

One of those two seats was Bastar, from where the Congress has fielded its six-term MLA Kawasi Lakhma this time, and which votes on April 19. He speaks to The Indian Express on the upcoming election, the poll issues, and rights of tribals, among other things.

Firstly, there is no railway line connecting Bastar with Raipur. There should be two – one connecting the seven districts which the Lok Sabha seat covers, and another connecting it with Bhadrachalam and Warangal in neighbouring Telangana. I want Bastar to be connected with all major cities in India.

On the lines of Ayodhya, we need an airport in Dantewada so that people can come here in huge numbers to visit the Danteshwari temple.

The second issue is Naxalism. Be it at the hands of the police or Naxals, tribals are being killed. Young tribals are sent to jail or migrate. I tried to solve the issue when we were in power and succeeded. The (Bhupesh) Baghel government worked on the principle of ‘vishwas, vikas and suraksha (trust, development and security)’, but since the BJP has come to power, they have started killing and sending tribals to jail again… sai sai (quickly, a play on the name of BJP CM Vishnu Deo Sai). Tribals are being threatened.

Since they are less educated, they are being beaten and threatened… We need to bring them into the mainstream. When we were in power, except the Silger incident, where three tribals were killed, no other incident occurred. There have been 10 incidents of police firing since the BJP