The Battle of Bastar for the lok Sabha poll candidates in the fray would be a unique experience, as the Maoist hotbed had more of their profiles in the spotlight during their campaigning period, than the very issues raised by them.
There are eight candidates in the fray in Bastar this time round. However, only three out of the eight candidates in the fray, mainly, Dinesh Kashyap (BJP), Deepak Karma (Congress) and Soni Sori (AAP) have made the poll battle not just interesting and triangular but also nail-biting, due to their own sharp profiles and experiences in the red zone rather than a host of issues raised during the campaigns.
Consider this. In the case of sitting BJP MP from Bastar, Dinesh Kashyap, who won the by-election held in 2011 after the death of the then Bastar MP and his father Baliram Kashyap, the fact of being the elder brother of State Tribal Development Minister Kedar Kashyap and his father’s huge popularity in Bastar have helped him maintain his profile as a decisive candidate in the poll fray.
Kashyap, while raising development issues during his campaigning, was recognised more as the late Baliram Kashyap’s son and brother of Kedar Kashyap by the tribals than for the work done by him as sitting MP in the constituency.
On the other hand, Deepak Karma, son of former minister and ex-Bastar MP Mahendra Karma, who was brutally killed by the Maoists during an attack on a Congress convoy at Jeeram valley in Bastar on May 25 last year, is known for his father’s influence in the Red zone when he was alive.
Karma had brought up local issues such as the demand for shifting the NMDC headquarters from Hyderabad to the iron ore rich Bastar and preference to tribals in railway recruitment for all Bastar posts during his campaigns to score an edge over other candidates.
Similarly, in the case of AAP candidate Soni Sori, the series of episodes leading to her arrest for her alleged links with the Maoists and later her getting a permanent bail from the Supreme Court received greater focus than the issue raised by her of innocent tribals being branded as Maoists.
The other significant candidate, Bimla Sori of the CPI, got more recognition as cousin of Soni Sori rather than the local issues raised by her during the campaigns. Manbodh Baghel of the BSP is a lawyer in Jagdalpur and Shankar Thakur of Samajwadi Party (SP) is an influential businessman and farmer from Kurenga village in Tokapal tehsil. Both are coming from parties which have the support of backward classes elsewhere in the country.
The other two candidates mainly Comrade Devchandra Dhruv of the CPI (Ml) and Arjun Singh Thakur of the Ambedkarite Party of India have not been in much focus during their campaigns as the spotlight was almost entirely stolen by Dinesh Kashyap, Deepak Karma and Soni Sori.