Raman Singh represents a credible face of the BJP at a time when some of its stars are struggling
Aesop's fable about the tortoise and the hare is too well-known to need repetition. We have identified Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh as the proverbial tortoise in the BJP race, as it were, because today, 15 years after he took over as the Chief Minister of the then recently created State in 2003, he is the one BJP leader in the rungbelow the undisputed party supremo Narendra Modi whom many in the political system are looking to as an effective administrator who has maintained a low profile yet delivered. The Chhattisgarh Assembly election due later this year is widely regarded to be his biggest challenge; by everyone but Raman Singh himself, that is. The Chief Minister is on record in recent television and newspaper interviews asserting that he will improve his tally this time around in the 90-seat Assembly and lead the BJP to a record fourth consecutive term in office because unlike in the past when he fought elections with an “unfriendly Congress-led Government at the Centre”, this time around the Modi regime is in power and has ensured the “State requests have been met and concerns addressed” with alacrity.
More high-profile and charismatic BJP Chief Ministers who have had had terms in office co-terminus with Raman Singh's in their respective States, though not necessarily for all of the 15 years he has been in power, have seen some of their sheen rub off — Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh (in power since 2005) has been hit by allegations of a cover-up in the Vyapam Scam and is battling to contain the anger of the farming community, Vasundhara Raje (2003-2008 and from 2013 onwards) in Rajasthan is facing a perceptible credibility crisis due to a host of issues, and BS Yeddyurappa during his one substantial Chief Ministerial tenure (2008-11) faced a lot of heat not just on corruption charges (of which he was later acquitted) but also due to a perceived governance deficit. Even more freshly minted BJP CMs in Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Haryana who took off like hares are now slowing down as criticism of their statements and actions has grown more pointed.
So, what explains Raman Singh's rather successful impersonation of Old Man RiverIJ In a nutshell, three achievements: (i) Chhattisgarh's effective rejig of the Public Distribution System (PDS) under his leadership which has minimised leakages and taken local conditions into account in implementing the changes required to ensure an obstacle/middle-man free distribution chain taking special care of last-mile delivery; (ii) His uncompromising battle against Maoist violence aligned to an in the main successful ownership by the administration of the development narrative for and behalf of the tribal communities of Chhattisgarh and; (iii) The rapaciousness of corruption in the mineral/ore-rich tribal lands of the State, though still far from over, has been mitigated by a sustained, top down anti-graft effort. Watch out for this man.