Congress hopes big in Bastar’s Kanker seat that it lost narrowly in 2019, against BJP’s anti-conversion face

WHILE THE BJP won the 2023 Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, the Congress won five of the eight Assembly segments falling under the ST-reserved Kanker Lok Sabha constituency in the Bastar region. Its overall votes across the segments were also higher than in 2019, when it lost the Kanker seat narrowly.

This is what is giving the party hope of wresting back the constituency, which votes on April 26, which used to be its bastion when Chhattisgarh was part of Madhya Pradesh. Former Congress leader Arvind Netam (1980-1996) and his wife Chabila (1996-1998) held the seat between 1980 and 1998. But since then, the BJP has never lost it. The new state was carved out in 2000.

There is another change. Kanker, which has always seen bipolar contests, will have a third contestant this year. An 80-year-old Netam, who now heads his own tribal party, Hamar Raj, has fielded Vinod Nagvanshi as the party tries to find a foothold in its first elections.

Nagvanshi says: “Neither the Congress nor the BJP is speaking on tribal issues. Kanker needs a major hospital, good higher education institutions. There are six mines here, but no technical institutes to help locals get jobs in the mines.”

The tribal-dominated Kanker district, jutting into Maharashtra, is dry, hilly and impoverished, though agriculture remains its biggest profession. Among the top demands of residents are a bypass road for the arterial Keshkal Valley road to Bastar, tap water supply to villages, and a railway line connecting Kanker to Dhamtari district.

“The biggest issue in several villages is the lack of tap water supply. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, elevated water tanks have been erected and pipes have been laid, but where is the water? It’s been two years now,” asks Roshan