BJP woos tribals with hope to win high-stakes Chhattisgarh Assembly polls

BJP faces uphill task to win tribal support in Chhattisgarh polls. PM Modi, Amit Shah, JP Nadda hold rallies in tribal belt. 29 seats reserved for STs, 32% of state's population. BJP won 25 of 29 ST-reserved seats in 2018. Congress banking on tribal welfare schemes. BJP trying to woo tribals with rallies, Parivartan Yatras. Congress quashed provision of giving priority to tribals in jobs. BJP raising issue of religious conversion in tribal pockets. CM Baghel confident of winning more ST-reserved seats.

As Chhattisgarh gears up for the assembly elections next month, the opposition BJP in the state faces an uphill task to win the support of tribal population, that is said to have significantly influenced the poll outcome in the past.

In the 2018 state polls, the BJP suffered a huge setback in tribal-dominated seats.

According to poll experts, the recent rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda in the tribal belt and launch of the party's two Parivartan Yatras from tribal pockets indicate the party's efforts to woo tribals. The state elections will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17.

In the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly, 29 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category, which comprises around 32% of the State's population.

The ruling Congress, which won 25 out of 29 ST-reserved seats in the 2018 assembly polls, is hopeful of bagging more seats than the last time, banking on its government's tribal welfare schemes.

“Tribals play a crucial role in forming government in the State. In the first elections held in Chhattisgarh in 2003, after the state was formed in 2000, the BJP managed to make deep inroads among tribals, who were once considered staunch supporters of the Congress. But in the next elections, the BJP kept losing hold over them,” Raipur-based poll analyst R Krishna Das told PTI.

Apart from the anti-incumbency, lack of coordination between top BJP tribal leaders and local party workers of their region, long persisting Left Wing Extremism issue were attributed as reasons for the party's diminishing popularity among tribal leaders, he said.