Raman Singh will not have it easy to make it fourth time lucky in Chhattisgarh…
This state is going to be purely a number’s game. One-third of the winners in 2013 have won with a vote margin of 5% or lesser. In 2013, BJP got 41% vote share while Congress got 40.3 % vote share. Difference between them had been marginal and a 1% vote shift would be the difference between winning & losing.
Anti-incumbency can be there for both BJP & Congress. Congress has 12 seats where they have won the elections in 2008 & 2013. Out of these there are 7 seats in which they have won all the three elections since 2003.
See the past trend results in the below table
This time a third front has entered the fray. BSP-Ajit Jogi-CPI combine may eat up into Congress vote share given that Jogi is ex-congressman himself and Mayawati can attract Dalit votes. If BSP-Jogi would have joined hand with Congress, then BJP would have most probably lost. BJP would be hoping that anti-BJP vote would go to the third front and not to Congress.
Raman Singh has not done very bad when it comes to development in the state. From time to time he has come up with many populist schemes, be it providing cheap rice or mid-day meals and smartphones for all students & women. He has got a relatively clean image.
For any party to defeat Raman Singh, they need to have a tall leader within their ranks. This is missing from the Congress. If BSP-Jogi combine manage to win 4+ seats, then they can be a game changer in Chhattisgarh and we can have a Karnataka like situation where the smaller two parties have the numbers to form the government if the BJP falls short of majority.
As per my prediction model, BJP & Congress both may get around 42-45 seats and BSP-Jogi between 5-7 seats.
If BJP loses, then it will have a tough time getting a majority in 2019 especially if the opposition parties get into a pre-poll alliance based on vote share % and not on their ideology…