FOR an average Chattisgarhi, the tedium of living on a barren plateau with monsoon-dependent agriculture has left little time for revolutionary thought. A separate Chattisgarh state stirred no mass hysteria till the actual process was set in motion with the presidential order in September. Now a denial could mean a backlash.
And a denial seems quite possible with politicians on both sides rapidly working out permutations. Of the 320 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 90 are in Chattisgarh and this election will decide the 90 who are to sit in the new Chattisgarh assembly. A lot of things can go wrong even as the bill is likely to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament. For instance, if the BJP gets a majority in the rest of Madhya Pradesh, but not in Chattisgarh, it will obviously stall the bill as the party is hardly expected to carve out a state and gift it to Congress. The Congress would also hedge and stall in a similar situation.
Former Congress chief minister Shyama Charan Shukla has already opposed the bifurcation and even Digvijay knows it may not be the...
An article by Neeraj Mishra...
