A young but emerging political personality of saffron rank in Chhattisgarh has played a massive role in BJP’s hat-trick in 90-member Assembly polls of which results were declared last month but he deliberately stayed away from limelight.
The figure is none other than 32-year-old Abhishek Singh, the lone son of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh. Abhishek, who hold MBA degree in human resources, had almost single-handedly managed the entire election campaign for his father in Rajnandgaon seat in November assembly polls and largely kept his father free to focus on constituencies where the BJP was struggling against the resurgent Congress.
“It would be wrong to say that I did it single-handedly, rather I would like to give all credit to people of Rajnandgaon for the love and trust they showed in their MlA and CM, and of course to our party workers who worked hard to keep the chief minister free and focus on whole state rather than in his own constituency,’’ Abhishek told The Pioneer.
Strategists across the ruling BJP as well as the opposition Congress in Chhattisgarh believe that Abhishek made a huge difference by managing campaign for his father in Rajnandgaon seat in the first phase polls and then turned tables in second phase in Pandaria and Kawardha seats. Kawardha is home district of Raman Singh and BJP’s loss would have been an embarrassing for the chief minister personally.
“The guy (Abhishek) has a ‘matured political brain’, he is ‘free from any arrogant feeling’ and he is ‘real down to earth person’, I guess he will be a real asset for the BJP in Chhattisgarh in coming up years, possibly with lok Sabha polls this year as speculation is rife that he plans to make debut in active politics from Rajnandgaon lok Sabha seat,’’ a BJP insider having RSS background told The Pioneer.
A senior Congress strategist confessed “it was his (Abhishek) master strokes and style of campaigning the Congress lost Kawardha and Pandaria seats.” “The Congress was dead sure to win both the seats (Kawardha and Pandaria) but Abhishek took command of the campaigning with his young brigade and took victory away from Congress because he touched almost each and every voter and explained logically why he needs their votes,’’ the Congress leader stated requesting his name be withheld. Abhishek said that he contacted all social groups in Rajnandgaon during campaigning under his Rs vichar vimarsh’ drive and collected inputs what kind of development they like in Rajnandgaon assembly segment.
“The idea was to engage with people not just for their votes but to seek their opinion on the kind of development they want to see for their city/village/caste/group/sector. The whole effort was to initiate a process where in we wanted people's opinion, suggestions and feedback to learn and evolve better ways to ensure development follows priorities of people. We have identified 20/30 odd agendas to work on Rajnandgaon and have already started working on them,’’ claimed Abhishek.
Regarding making debut in active politics, Abhishek who has passion for sports and readings, opined, Rs Rs I am already in politics, and I think every youth who has voting rights should be in politics. Not just to caste their one vote but to influence people around them for a better politics, better governance and a better India. As for me, I am already doing it,’’.