The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is banking heavily on the Sahu community after the crucial Scheduled Caste and Tribes (SC/ST) votes to once again hold the reigns of power in Chhattisgarh in the ensuing Assembly polls.
There are 10 seats reserved for SC candidates and 29 for ST candidates in the 90 seat Chhattisgarh Assembly.
As many as 12 candidates chosen by the party this time round are from the influential Sahu community while a third of unreserved seats have the party’s candidates chosen from the backward classes.
The 12 seats where members of Sahu community had been chosen as candidates are — Kota (Kashi Sahu), lormi (Thokan Sahu), Sakhti (Khilawan Sahu), Raipur (Rural) (Nandkumar Sahu), Abhanpur (Chandrashekhar Sahu), Sanjari (Balod) (Pritam Sahu), Gunderdehi (Virendra Sahu), Jaijpur ( Dr Kailash Sahu), Khallari (Chunanilal Sahu), Durg (Rural) (Ramshila Sahu) and Kawardha (Ashok Sahu).This is not the first time the BJP had been wooing the Sahu community for support as both the Opposition
Congress and the BJP even in 2008 Assembly polls had this strong belief that no party can hold the reigns of power without the support of the community.