Chhattisgarh goes to the polls in 2 phases on November 14 and November 20 to elect a 90 member assembly. The outgoing government is a BJP government, led by Raman Singh, which won the last elections with 39.2% of the vote and 50 seats as compared to the opposition Congress which had won 36.7% of the vote and 37 seats. The election will be held in two phases because of alleged security problems in the tribal belt of the state.

Chhattisgarh is a mineral rich state. It has abundant coal and iron ore deposits, as well as other precious minerals including diamonds and uranium. Its central region hosts the Bhilai Steel plant, as well as coal and iron ore mines, mineral processing and a number of ancillary industries, plus cement and aluminum industry. It is a power surplus state, providing electricity to many other states. Over one third of the population of the state is classified as Scheduled Tribes. 

Both BJP and Congress led governments have followed the policy of forcibly acquiring tribal lands in mineral rich areas and handing them over to big corporations.  Rivers in the state have been sold as captive private property to industrial houses to extract water and power for their own use. The central region of Chhattisgarh is known as the rice bowl of India.  Both as a result of drought and the neglect of irrigation, the peasants in Chattisgarh’s rice bowl are facing terrible hardships. They have been forced to migrate to the towns, in search of other means of livelihood.

The Chhattisgarh Government has initiated the notorious Salwa Judum movement, in the name of fighting naxalism.  The state is arming people with swords, bows and arrows, and using them in a civil war against other people who are alleged to be extremists. Over 650 villages of the Dantewada District have been forcibly evacuated, and lakhs of people are now in refugee camps. 

Taking serious note of the National Human Rights Commission’s alarming report over the atrocities committed by the state-sponsored Salwa Judum, the Supreme Court Of India directed the state government last month to take remedial measures and file its response before the Assembly polls. “The allegation is that the state is arming private persons. … if private persons, so armed by the state government, kill other persons, then the state is also liable to be prosecuted as abettor of the murder” said the three-member Bench.

The Raman Singh government has passed the notorious Chhattisgarh Public Safety Act, under which hundreds of people opposing state terrorism have been arrested, including doctors and filmmakers.

The Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha and Loktantrik Samajwadi Party are contesting the upcoming elections on a common platform to defeat both BJP and the Congress Party.