By IANS,
Raipur: Ahead of the Lok Sabha bypoll in Bastar next month, senior Congress politician and former chief minister Ajit Jogi Saturday said Chhattisgarh’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has no control in most parts of the sprawling region.
“Maoists have consolidated their base since 2003 when the BJP came to power in the state. The worst sufferers are the poor tribal civilians who were subjected to killing and torture by police and Maoists and the state government posed as a mute spectator,” Jogi said at an election rally in Lohandiguda in Bastar district, some 330 km south of capital Raipur.
He accused the BJP government of choking development in all the five districts of Bastar – Dantewada, Bijapur, Bastar, Narayanpur and Kanker.
“The situation in Bastar is extremely grave, this BJP regime has made the life of thousands of tribal families hell, people must get rid of this government,” Jogi said.
The Bastar Lok Sabha seat is made up of eight assembly segments and the BJP holds seven of them. The Congress has fielded Kawasi Lakhma, the legislator from Konta, which is the only seat the party won in the 2008 assembly polls under Bastar parliamentary constituency.
Reserved for tribals, the Bastar seat goes to polls May 8 with eight candidates in the fray. The BJP’s candidate is Dinesh Kashyap, the son of BJP’s sitting MP Baliram Kashyap who died here last month after prolonged illness.
Citing security reasons, the Election Commission has announced it will relocate 200 of Bastar’s total 1,716 polling booths to areas close to police and paramilitary camps.