Some people snidely describe the upbeat mood in the Congress camp in Assam as overconfidence. But the Chhattisgarh chief minister is unruffled. BJP, he says, is trying out every trick up its sleeves to build its narrative in the state, he says and quips, ‘BJP’s desperation shows’.
BJP’s major poll plank in the state, he points out, has been to attack Badruddin Ajmal and the alliance between the AIDUF and the Congress. The Home Minister in his election rallies is calling upon people to save the state from AIDUF, he recalls with a chuckle. “But who was the BJP saving when it had aligned with AIDUF? The regional party was not a threat to national security then,” he asks rhetorically.
In Chhattisgarh, he recalls, Home Minister Amit Shah had predicted BJP would bag 65 seats in the Assembly; but it was the Congress which went on to bag 68 seats. In Assam too, he says, the Home Minister is putting up a brave front and claiming that BJP would be sweeping the election. Baghel predicts that results will be similar to Chhattisgarh. Excerpts from an interaction with him:
