Voters shows way out to outsiders in Lok Sabha elections

Raveesh Benjamin

Raipur: During the Lok Sabha elections, the issue of candidates being local and outsiders remained dominant. This voice was first raised from Korba, when BJP leader Saroj Pandey was fielded from Korba instead of Durg.

Meanwhile, Congress also fielded strong leaders of Durg in other Lok Sabha constituencies to balance the social equation. In such a situation, the voters did not accept the experiment of both BJP and Congress and showed them the way out. BJP leader Saroj Pandey lost from Korba and similarly, among the four Congress leaders, former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, former Minister Dr. Shiv Dahria and MLA Devendra Singh Yadav had to face defeat.

Voters rejected caste equation of Congress

According to political observers, in the strategy of balancing caste equations and making big leaders candidates, Congress had changed the areas of almost all the candidates. Among them, Durg leader and former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel was fielded from Rajnandgaon, former Durg MP Tamradhwaj Sahu from Mahasamund, former Raipur division minister Dr. Shiv Dahria from Janjgir-Champa and Durg-Bhilai resident MLA Devendra Yadav from Bilaspur. Voters showed these leaders the way to defeat.