Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections 2023: The state’s 3 chief ministers in 22 years
Chhattisgarh, which now has 33 districts, was created with 16 districts, 11 Lok Sabha and five Rajya Sabha seats, and 90 Assembly seats in 2000, separating from Madhya Pradesh.
Ajit Jogi was elected as the first chief minister of the state on 9 November 2000, after the new state was created. At that time, the Congress held 48 seats out of the 90 seats in the newly formed Chhattisgarh.
Jogi, an IAS officer who had served as collector in districts like Raipur, Indore, and Sidhi, joined the Congress in 1986 on the advice of then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh.
In the first Assembly polls held in 2003, internal divisions within the party led the Congress to be reduced to 37 seats, while the BJP secured the majority with 50 seats.
After the defeat in 2003 and talks that Jogi tried to buy MLAs to get a majority, he could never regain the clout he once enjoyed in Chhattisgarh politics.
The BJP won the 2003 Assembly polls under the leadership of Raman Singh, leading to his appointment as the chief minister.
Raman Singh’s flagship scheme of free rice distribution helped him retain the state in the 2008 polls.
While the BJP secured the state in 2013 and Raman Singh was sworn in as the chief minister for the third time, Chhattisgarh began to see a rise in Naxalism.
By the 2018 Assembly elections, the tide had shifted against Raman Singh. He was criticised among BJP workers for promoting his family and faced opposition within the state and central BJP leadership.
After three consecutive defeats, the Congress won with a historic majority of 68 seats in 2018. Bhupesh Baghel was sworn in as the chief minister.
Baghel’s promises for a farm-loan waiver and better prices for crops to farmers worked in his favour.