How an ex-Congressman can scupper the party's chances in Chhattisgarh polls

While Raman Singh of the BJP is leaning heavily on his social welfare schemes to win a fourth term, the Congress seeks to oust him by entering into key alliances

In the Chhattisgarh assembly elections in 2013, a mere 0.67 per cent of the vote share had separated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Congress.

This time around, as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh relies on his 15-year-old government’s efficient delivery of social welfare schemes to get re-elected, the story of the 2018 assembly elections in the state could well be how the Congress manages to overhaul the slim gap in its vote share by striking pre-poll alliances, or whether a former Congressman scuppers the party’s chances.

In 2013, the vagaries of the first-past-the-post system had meant the BJP