Chhattisgarh Polls: Senior Congress Leader Ram Dayal Uike Defects to BJP
Raipur: Ram Dayal Uike, a tribal leader from north Chhattisgarh who about a year ago was made an executive president of the state Congress to deter him from joining Ajit Jogi, has defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party. He may be first among a likely deluge of tribal leaders joining the BJP.
Uike was a Jogi acolyte from the beginning and his four terms as an MLA from Pali had virtually been assured through his mentor’s support. When Jogi launched his own party two years ago, he was expected to cross over, but initially, the threat of losing his assembly seat kept him hanging. Later, the Congress chose to make a tribal and a Dalit the executive presidents of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) to complete the picture. Bhupesh Baghel, the PCC president, is an OBC, T.S. Singhdeo, the leader of opposition, is a Thakur and Satyanarayan Sharma, the chief whip, is a Brahmin. It appears that Uike, who was the lightweight, may actually have used his position as a bargaining chip with the BJP.
A senior BJP leader had informed this reporter a few weeks ago that as the elections near, several tribal leaders might defect to the BJP from the Congress. Congress had won 19 out of 29 possible tribal seats in the state, sweeping Bastar with eight out of 12 seats. Though Uike belongs to the northern tribal belt, his moving to BJP will affect Congress’s morale in the region.
Uike meanwhile told his supporters that he was unhappy about being only a puppet president and was not being involved in any decision making by either Baghel or P.L. Punia. Rahul Gandhi’s recent decision to accord more importance to returning tribal stalwart Arvind Netam by appointing him to the seven-member coordination committee to oversee the distribution of tickets may also have perturbed Uike.
Uike, who joined the BJP in the presence of Amit Shah in Bilaspur on Saturday, may actually be part of a tribal exodus theory of the BJP, which will now unfold at a greater speed. The central idea is to bare the Congress cupboard and cause mass confusion within the opposition ranks. Congress will now be unsure of retaining its tribal leaders as well as Dalit candidates.
The same has happened in the past as well. Bhagirath Prasad, a Dalit IAS officer who had all his life been promoted by Digvijay Singh, had received the Congress ticket from Bhind in 2014. He sprung a surprise by not only resigning from the Congress but also contesting the elections as a BJP candidate on the very last day of filing nominations. He is now the sitting MP from Bhind, MP. Similarly, Manturam Panwar had been made the Congress candidate from Antagarh assembly in a by-election in 2015. He had resigned after filing his nomination.
With Uike switching sides just ahead of the elections, the prognosis for the Congress is not good.
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