Kanker, Dec 3 (PTI) Campaigning for the December 5 bypoll to Chhattisgarh’s Bhanupratappur Assembly constituency in Maoist-hit Kanker district ended at 3pm on Saturday.
The by-election in Bhanupratappur constituency, which is reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Tribes, has been necessitated after Congress MLA and Deputy Assembly Speaker Manoj Singh Mandavi died of a heart attack on October 16.
Candidates are now permitted to hold door-to-door campaigns before polling on December 5, officials explained.
As many as seven candidates are in the fray for the bypoll, though it is largely seen as a direct contest between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP.
The Congress has fielded Savitri Mandavi, wife of the deceased MLA, while the BJP nominee is former MLA Brahmanand Netam.
Sarva Adivasi Samaj , an umbrella body of tribal communities in Bastar, has also fielded its candidate, former Indian Police Service Officer Akbar Ram Korram, who is contesting as an Independent.
Korram retired as Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police in 2020.
According to poll officials, there are 1,95,678 voters, comprising 95,186 males, 1,00,491 females and one third gender person.
A total of 356 polling stations have been set up, of which 239 are in rural areas and the rest in the urban part of the constituency.
The counting of votes will be held on December 8.
The Congress’ campaign was led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, while former CM and Bharatiya Janata Party national vice president Raman Singh and state unit chief Arun Sao campaigned for the main opposition party.
A highlight of the campaign was the allegation of rape levelled by the Congress against BJP candidate Brahmanand Netam.
The Congress has claimed Netam is an accused in a rape case of a teen girl registered in Telco police station in Jamshedpur in neighbouring Jharkhand in 2019.
The Congress said, by nominating Netam, the BJP was giving a message that it was at the forefront of protecting such “criminals”.
Incidentally, a police team from Jharkhand had arrived here recently in connection with the case.
The BJP, on its part, said the allegations were being levelled as the Congress was anticipating defeat in the bypoll. Netam has also claimed the allegations were baseless and that he has no connection to the case.
The BJP said CM Baghel had conspired with the Hemant Soren government in the neighbouring state to defame Netam.
The Congress highlighted what it claimed were pro-farmer and pro-tribal measures taken by the Bhupesh Baghel government, including the launch of the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, the cow dung procurement scheme and distribution of forest rights certificates.
The BJP countered it by saying the Baghel government had failed to protect reservation benefits of the Scheduled Tribe communities in the state.
It also said law and order had deteriorated under Congress rule and corruption and “mafia raj” were flourishing.
On the last day of the campaign, Baghel held a roadshow in Lakhanpuri village and addressed a public rally in Korar town.
He said bills related to reservation were passed by the state Assembly on Friday, resulting in the opposition BJP having no issue to raise.
As per the two bills passed in the Assembly a day earlier, Scheduled Tribes will get a quota of 32 per cent, Other Backward Classes 27 percent, Scheduled Castes 13 percent, while 4 per cent has been earmarked for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in public employment and admissions in educational institutions.
The issue of quota flared up in the state after the Chhattisgarh High Court in September this year set aside the Raman Singh-headed state government’s 2012 order to raise the quota to 58 per cent in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions.
The HC, at the time, had held reservation exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling was unconstitutional.
Following the HC decision, reservation for tribal communities that form 32 per cent of state’s population had come down from 32 per cent to 20 per cent.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress had won 68 seats in the 90-member Assembly, leaving the BJP a poor second with just 15 seats.
Subsequent bypoll wins took the Congress’ tally to 71, bringing down the BJP’s tally to 14. PTI COR TKP BNM BNM
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