Interview
Arun Sao
Nine months into his role as the BJP’s Chhattisgarh unit chief, Arun Sao feels that the failure of the Congress dispensation in the State led by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel to crack down on crime and corruption have placed the BJP on a firm ground ahead of the Assembly polls this year. He spoke about his party’s electoral strategy and other issues. Excerpts:
The term of the current Assembly is coming to an end, how do you assess the BJP’s role in the Opposition?
We have played that role very proactively and raised people-centric issues. The Congress came to power based on many promises but not a single one of them has been fulfilled. Take for example, the issue of prohibition on liquor that featured in a big way in its manifesto. It even vowed to ban liquor if elected but has taken a U-turn now.
Will the BJP promise a prohibition on liquor in the coming polls?
The public knows that the Congress government is not going ahead with the liquor ban because it has indulged in a scam of ₹2,000 crore which was unearthed by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED). During our government, we had gradually closed liquor shops and reduced the time for sale of liquor. Steps can be taken in that direction gradually.
What are the issues that you will take to the public?
Corruption and crime are big issues. Religious conversion is taking place, and all development works have come to a standstill. We will tell the people about the progress we had made in Chhattisgarh in 15 years and what Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has done for the State in the last nine years.
But the Congress denies the charges and alleges that probe agencies are working at the Centre’s behest.
Everyone knows that people who are a part of the government are collecting ₹25 per tonne for coal transportation. There are two counters at liquor shops — fake liquor is sold with fake holograms at one of the counters and that money goes to Congress people. When the common man knows this, will the ED not know? Will it sit idly? The government is neck-deep in corruption.
Issues such as religious conversions and communal clashes are dominating the political discourse…
The State government is protecting those who are indulging in religious conversion. Also, outsiders have been brought in to settle down for their votes. There is a conspiracy to change the demography.
The Sarva Adivasi Samaj will likely join the poll fray. Whose prospects would be hurt more, the BJP’s or the Congress’s?
Only time will tell. In a democracy, everyone has the right to contest elections.
The BJP is yet to decide its CM face…
Our parliamentary board will decide whether to go with a CM face or not.
Mr. Baghel has integrated religious symbolism with regional and cultural pride. Given that this has been the BJP’s domain traditionally, has he managed to blunt that edge?
Only BJP has taken Chhattisgarh forward — carving a separate State, setting up a railway zonal headquarters and institutions like AIIMS and IIT.
The Congress sent three persons to the Rajya Sabha who have got nothing to do with Chhattisgarh. It cheated people by taking oath on Gangajal (holy water), it is now trying to fool them in the name of regional pride.
How do you see the BJP’s prospects for the 2023 elections?
A BJP government will definitely be formed in Chhattisgarh.
Fielding new faces in the last Lok Sabha elections after the Assembly polls debacle had worked for the BJP. Is something similar expected now?
When the parliamentary board of the party and the election committee screen candidates, it will be kept in mind that there is a mix of old and new.
