Retaking Raipur

Intelligent campaign, united leadership and anti-incumbency against the BJP lead to a Congress landslide

- Vijaya Pushkarna

When Congress workers were celebrating their spectacular victory on December 11, Bhupesh Baghel was barely a week short of completing five years as state Congress president. Baghel, who played a key role in the Congress comeback, had launched his party’s revival initiative just three months into office. On March 14, 2014, he called a maha bandh, to protest a Maoist attack in the Sukma-Bastar area, which killed 16 people. In 2013, the Maoists had wiped out the entire Congress leadership in Chhattisgarh in an audacious attack in the same area. Baghel held the Raman Singh government responsible for the surge in Maoist attacks.