BJP win 10 of Chhattisgarh's 11 seats

16 May 2009,

RAIPUR: After the November assembly polls, the "Raman effect" has done its magic again in the mineral-rich Chhattisgarh with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning 10 out of state's 11 Lok Sabha seats Saturday.

Chief minister Raman Singh, who had led the party back to power in the state last November, is largely credited for the BJP's sweep. Only newly created Korba constituency went to the Congress, with the party's state working president Charandas Mahant stunning BJP's Karuna Shukla, niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The BJP won all the four seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribe candidates - Bastar, Kanker, Raigarh and Surguja - besides Janjgir, the lone seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes. It also won in Durg, Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund, Raipur and Bilaspur.

BJP state unit chief Vishnudeo Sai, who won Raigarh, told IANS by phone: "The clean sweep in the state was predicted. All credit goes to Raman Singh, his clean image and concerted effort to bring development to the state."

The poll outcome proved to be a shocker for Congress leader and state's first chief minister Ajit Jogi as not only did his wife Renu Jogi lose to former central minister and flamboyant BJP leader Dilip Singh Judeo from Bilaspur but also four of his supporters, for whose nomination he lobbied hard, lost the polls by huge margins.

"Though good news is coming in from Delhi that we are set to return to power but the outcome in the state is clearly shocking for the Congress. We never thought of getting just one seat. The state leaders will sit together soon to analyse the reasons for stunning defeat," Congress state general secretary Ramesh Varlyani told IANS.

In the 2004 parliamentary polls, the BJP won 10 seats while the Congress bagged one. The BJP's strength was later reduced to nine with the Congress winning the Rajnandgaon by-election after BJP MP Pradeep Gandhi was expelled from parliament following the cash-for-query scam.