, Raipur. BJP-Congress have already put their full strength into campaigning in the tribal-dominated Bastar Lok Sabha seat. Today, on the pretext of nomination, both the parties demonstrated their strength. Congress candidate MLA Kawasi Lakhma and BJP candidate Mahesh Kashyap filed nominations along with senior leaders. This seat used to be dominated by independent candidates. After independence, from 1952 to 1971, independents kept coming here after winning. After this BJP took control. From 1998 to 2014, BJP candidates won continuously.
Let us tell you that Bastar Lok Sabha is a reserved seat for Scheduled Tribe (ST). This seat came into existence for the first time in 1952. The current MP from here is Deepak Baij of Congress. In 2019, Deepak defeated BJP’s Baiduram Kashyap.
The tradition of independent candidates winning is associated with the record victory of independent candidate Muchaki Kosa by 83.05 percent votes in the first election in the year 1952. Till date no candidate has been able to break this record. After this, the maximum number of votes in the history of Lok Sabha elections is in the name of Mankuram Sodhi of Congress, who got 54.66 percent votes in the 1984 elections. Congress broke the dominance of independent candidates in the tribal-dominated Bastar Lok Sabha seat in 1980, but it was limited to only two elections. In 1991, independent candidate Mahendra Karma again won by defeating Congress. After this, lotus kept blooming on Bastar Lok Sabha seat for 20 years, but in the year 2019 elections, Deepak Baij defeated Baiduram Kashyap of BJP.
This time BJP has fielded Mahesh and Congress has fielded Kawasi.
This time BJP has made Mahesh Kashyap its candidate. Mahesh remained active in the Sangh for a long time and became the District Organization Minister of Vishwa Hindu Parishad. He has formed Bastar Cultural Security Forum and has been active as divisional coordinator. Whereas Congress has fielded MLA Kawasi Lakhma. Lakhma is currently an MLA from Konta assembly constituency. He has been MLA from this seat 6 times. Was Excise Minister in Congress government. Kawasi Lakhma, resident of Nagaras in Sukma district, had won the 1998 assembly elections by defeating the BJP candidate by a huge margin. After this he has been continuously winning the assembly elections.
BJP’s Baliram Kashyap was a four-time MP.
Baliram Kashyap was MP from Bastar for four consecutive terms from 1998 to 2009. Whereas, in 2011 and 2014, BJP’s Dinesh Kashyap became MP from here. Meaning, this seat has been dominated by the Kashyap family for the last one and a half decade. Deepak Baij of Congress had won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Deepak Baij of Congress defeated Baiduram Kashyap of Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2014, BJP’s Dinesh Kashyap had won from here. He defeated Deepak Kumar of Congress.
Know the results of 2019 elections
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Deepak Baij of Congress defeated Baiduram Kashyap of Bharatiya Janata Party by 38,982 thousand votes. Deepak Baij got 402,527 lakh votes i.e. 44 percent, while Baiduram Kashyap got 363,545 (40 percent) lakh votes. CPI’s Ramu Ram was at third place. Ramu got only 38,395 thousand votes.
See the election results so far here –
