Even a decade after his demise, the BJP is banking on the legacy of the late “ghar wapsi” campaigner Dilip Singh Judeo to revive its fortunes among tribal communities in Chhattisgarh. The party, which has won only two of the 29 tribal seats in the State, has given a ticket to Judeo’s middle son, Prabal Pratap, and youngest daughter-in-law, Sanyogita Singh Judeo, from Kota and Chandrapur, respectively, with the ‘Bahu Rani’ given the comparatively safer seat. Both candidates are trying to connect with voters on issues, including conversion and development.
Dilip Singh Judeo was the younger son of Raja Vijay Bhushan Singh Deo, the last ruling prince of Jashpur. He was a two-time Member of Parliament and three-time Rajya Sabha MP, who also held a Cabinet rank in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the Centre. According to his family, Judeo, known as the ‘tribal king of Chhattisgarh’, was the first and only member of a royal family in India to wash the feet of tribal people and bring them back into the Hindu fold. He devoted his life to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) ‘ghar wapsi’ campaign. His downfall began after a sting operation against him went viral on social media, forcing him to resign.
After his demise, Judeo’s legacy was taken up by his younger son and the husband of Ms. Sanyogita Singh Judeo, the late Yudhveer Singh Judeo, who won the Chandrapur seat twice, in 2008 and 2013. Yudhveer Singh Deo passed away after a prolonged illness, handing the baton over to his wife. She lost in the 2018 State polls.
“Even after that loss, the RSS believes that only Sanyogita is fit for the Chandrapur seat as her husband did a lot of work here. Chandrapur is also very close to Jashpur, Judeo’s karmabhoomi, but it’s a reserved seat,” a BJP functionary, who maintained that even after the ‘Bahu Rani’ remained at the third spot in Chandrapur in the 2018 polls, and Mr. Pratap has only a “marginal” presence in State politics, the two have been selected as candidates because the RSS had more say in ticket distribution this time.
“It was due to Judeo that the BJP had robust support in Chhattisgarh’s tribal population. Only his family can revive the lost faith,” an RSS office-bearer, who claimed that many of the Sangh’s volunteers had already moved to Chandrapur and Kota to help Judeo’s kin in their campaigns.
Mr. Pratap is now the face of the Sangh’s ‘ghar wapsi’ campaign in the State, with a Scheduled Tribes (ST) population of 30.62%. Right wing groups believe STs are facing massive conversion by Christian missionaries. Mr. Pratap’s stature rose in the party last November, when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat unveiled a statue of Judeo in Jashpur. Addressing his audience, Mr. Bhagwat had compared Judeo to Birsa Munda, who is revered by tribal communities. He had said that both Judeo and Birsa Munda had immense love for India and their love had shown the way to Indians. Mr. Bhagwat had also praised Mr. Pratap for carrying his father’s legacy forward.
At one of his public meetings, Mr. Pratap, who quit a high-paying job in the U.S. and returned to India when his father died in 2013, asked the audience how the Congress could call him an “outsider” when it’s own leaders were “Italian”.
“I can’t fight from Kota, which is just 400 km from my janam and karma bhoomi, while their own leaders have travelled all the way from Italy and want to rule India,” Mr. Pratap said. He appears confident of winning from Kota and is also hoping for a bigger role if he secures victory. “I have been given the toughest seat in the State. The BJP has never won this seat. So, it’s obvious that my victory will be seen as landmark,” he told The Hindu.
Residents of Kota associate with the Judeo family but are irked with the BJP due to the lack of development in the area, including bad roads, and inadequate infrastructure, and jobs. “I appreciate the courage of these people who are targeting the Congress for no development in the State, which otherwise was ruled by the BJP for 15 years, which means there were roads in Chhattisgarh before but the Congress dug them into potholes so that the BJP can cry ‘no development’,” Pawan Sahu, a businessman from Kota, said.
Ms. Singh Judeo disagreed that the BJP was targeting the Congress for no development in the State even when the saffron party had ruled here for more than a decade. “The BJP has done a lot for this State. It’s the Congress that failed to preserve what was done by us,” she said.
