Chief minister Ajit Jogi, if the promo on the pro-Jogi Aakash cable channel is to be believed, has acted in a Chhattisgarhi film appropriately titled Sapno ka Raja. And the big dream he is selling in this election is the promise to remove Chhattisgarh from the BIMARU category and make it a front-ranking developed state. That may be a far cry given that Chhattisgarh, though rich in natural resources, was among the most undeveloped regions of backward Madhya Pradesh. But one thing is clear underlying the overt ‘J’ factor (Jogi versus Judeo) in this election campaign is the ‘C’ factor. If the BJP campaign revolves around the theme of conversion, for Jogi C stands for ‘Chhattisgarhia’ and he is making an all out bid to evoke and represent ‘Chattisgarhi asmita (pride)’. Even BJP workers privately concede that Jogi’s big advantage is his ‘Chhattisgarhi’ identity. He always speaks in ‘chaste Chhatisgarhi’ at public meetings, peppering his speeches with earthy idioms and anecdotes. In contrast, none of the top BJP leaders can speak the dialect. Jogi, in fact, refuses to call it a dialect and has been pushing for its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Besides that, he has gone out of his way to promote Chhattisgarhi film, music, and culture. In the last three years, the local film industry, with active state patronage, has produced a dozen odd films of which ‘Mor Chuiyya Bhuiyya’ was a super-hit. In the poll campaign too, local folk artistes and musicians are being used extensively. A Congress leader in Raipur said that while the BJP was depending on Bollywood stars like Hema Malini to campaign for them, the Congress was focusing on local talent. Just as the Hindu flavour is strong in their campaign, the Chhatisgarhia flavour is strong in ours. However, whether this flavour will make much of an impact on the voters remains a moot question. One reason is that Jogi is trying to create a specific linguistic-cultural-regional identity from above, and not as a response to an urge from below. Unlike Jharkhand and Uttaranchal, both of which were carved out after decades of agitation, there was no comparable popular movement that fuelled the demand for Chhattisgarh. The BJP’s willingness to concede a separate state stemmed from its pro-small states policy and from the viewpoint of administrative convenience. But since the state’s formation three years ago, Jogi has sought to focus on its distinct identity and in the process establish himself as the true ‘son of the soil’ who is different from all the other established leaders of the region. But the irony is that despite all the development work he has undertaken, Jogi is more feared than loved today. His background as a bureaucrat makes him a no-nonsense administrator and he is a shrewd politician who has managed to lure many a BJP MLA, mayor and leader to his side. But he is also a solo player and has sliced out all the old stalwarts from the Congress campaign. Besides, the traders and urban sections hate his autocratic ways. Jogi himself revels in being a hate figure for some, and believes an anti-Jogi campaign will help him just as the anti-Modi campaign helped Narendra Modi and the anti-Laloo movement established Laloo as the man of the people. But Chhattisgarh is not Gujarat and Jogi no Laloo. Yet, even his many detractors will concede that Jogi has managed to fashion the beginnings of a ‘Chhattisgarhia’ identity that was practically non-existent before he arrived on the scene.
