Amrit Birhore, 64, a resident of Sakari village in Chhattisgarh’s Surguja, does not know why and whom to vote for. “…I have never seen any politician visiting our village or addressing our problems,” he said as he returned from a jungle after collecting a form of Cuddapah Almond.
Sushila Birhore, 60, echoed Amrit Birhore. She said they are forced to walk a kilometre to fetch drinking water. “We do not even have solar panels for electricity,” she said on a hot April afternoon when most residents were busy preparing for sowing summer crops.
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Sakari is one of the seven villages of the particularly vulnerable tribal group Birhore. It is part of the Surguja Lok Sabha seat, which has been associated with the erstwhile royal families of Congress’s TS Singh Deo and the late Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dilip Singh Judeo. Yet it lacks even basic facilities. Residents use a few solar panels installed there to charge their mobile phones. They say mobile phones are the only source of information and entertainment for them.
Shiv Prasad, a primary school dropout, said he has the highest education in the village. He added most of them have land in the forest which is of no use. “Our meagre earnings come from selling minor forest produce and most of us work are daily wage labourers,” he said.
Not a single poll banner or poster could be seen in the village days before Surguja was due to go to the polls in the third of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls on May 7.
The BJP, which swept the 2023 assembly polls in Surguja winning all eight assembly segments, hopes to continue its winning streak. It has held the Surguja Lok Sabha seat since Chhattisgarh’s formation in 2000. In the 2019 national polls, BJP’s Renuka Singh defeated Congress’s Khelsai Singh by a margin of 1,57,873 votes and went on to become a Union minister.
Renuka Singh was elected to the assembly last year. The BJP has fielded former assembly member Chintamani Maharaj, who defected to the BJP from the Congress before the December 2023 assembly polls, as its Lok Sabha candidate. Shashi Singh is the Congress’s nominee.
Both BJP and Congress candidates are facing protests. “…Maharaj is an outsider because he joined the party just ahead of the assembly elections. Some senior leaders from the constituency, who were against him, have been sent to other constituencies for this reason. …[BJP’s ideological fount] RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] is working for him,” said a BJP functionary in Surguja, who did not want to be named.
In the Gond-dominated tribal region, the Congress has fielded a Gond tribal. Maharaj is from the Kanwar tribe, a minority in the region. “Polarisation of tribals can also damage Maharaj if non-tribal communities do not support him,” said a second BJP functionary. Gond tribals account for around 700000 of the total 1.5 million voters.
Shashi Singh said rising inflation and reservation, which he claimed the BJP government wants to end, were the main issues. “I believe there is a silent wave against the BJP,” he said.
Maharaj said he will win as people want Narendra Modi as the prime minister for the third term.
Mohammad Akil, a local grocer, said he expected a keen contest. He added there was an element of the Modi wave despite concerns among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes over the reservation. “The OBCs [Other Backward Classes] are inclined towards Congress because of caste census call,” he said.
Rahul Upadhyay, a student, said Surguja is a traditional BJP seat. “No matter who fights he or she will win. Everyone wants Modi to be prime minister again because there is no other leader…The tribals are with the BJP because Chhattisgarh’s chief minister [Vishnu Deo Sai] is tribal for the first time in history. Modi made a tribal [Droupadi Murmu] the President.”
Harsh Dubey, a political commentator, said the assembly election loss was a huge setback for the Congress as they were not prepared for it. “The setback was so huge that no Congress workers were on the ground until the declaration of candidates for Lok Sabha elections. The case is no different in Surguja. Top Congress leaders have been inactive since the assembly election results. It seems winning Surguja will again be tough for Congress.”
