Express News Service
RAIPUR: The BJP, during its election campaign, raked-up the alleged religious conversions mostly into Christianity, particularly among tribals in Chhattisgarh, but the party’s unconventional pick of a tribal Christian Prabodh Minj yielded unexpected success in the reserved Lundra assembly constituency, which was represented by the Congress since 2008.
Minj became the first ever BJP Christian MLA in Chhattisgarh despite having faced initial protest from local saffron leaders and right-wing organisation ‘Sarv Hindu Samaj’ over the decision to pick him from the Scheduled Tribe seat in north Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja division.
The BJP remained unfazed over the objections and firmly trusted the potential of Minj, a Catholic Christian who was a two-time Mayor of Ambikapur where he launched a successful initiative on cleanliness drive in the city. “There were strong demands from our local leaders to replace the Christian candidate and give the party ticket to some Hindu leader. We then conveyed it to our senior leaders. But BJP is a party that does politics for 140 crore people of the country and is not restricted to any one community”, said Lallan Pratap Singh Ambikapur district BJP president.
Chhattisgarh election in-charge for BJP Om Mathur had then countered citing the criteria for the party’s selection is contingent on ‘merit and winnability’. Minj, who changed his loyalty from Congress to BJP in 2003, got elected as Ambikapur Mayor in 2005 as a BJP candidate. Lundra constituency has around 1.94 lakh voters. Minj has defeated sitting Congress MLA Pritam Ram by a convincing margin of 24,128 votes.Minj worked hard during his poll campaign at Lundra and visited some remot villages where no politician ever visited after Independence. Follow channel on WhatsApp
RAIPUR: The BJP, during its election campaign, raked-up the alleged religious conversions mostly into Christianity, particularly among tribals in Chhattisgarh, but the party’s unconventional pick of a tribal Christian Prabodh Minj yielded unexpected success in the reserved Lundra assembly constituency, which was represented by the Congress since 2008.
Minj became the first ever BJP Christian MLA in Chhattisgarh despite having faced initial protest from local saffron leaders and right-wing organisation ‘Sarv Hindu Samaj’ over the decision to pick him from the Scheduled Tribe seat in north Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja division.
The BJP remained unfazed over the objections and firmly trusted the potential of Minj, a Catholic Christian who was a two-time Mayor of Ambikapur where he launched a successful initiative on cleanliness drive in the city. “There were strong demands from our local leaders to replace the Christian candidate and give the party ticket to some Hindu leader. We then conveyed it to our senior leaders. But BJP is a party that does politics for 140 crore people of the country and is not restricted to any one community”, said Lallan Pratap Singh Ambikapur district BJP president.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
Chhattisgarh election in-charge for BJP Om Mathur had then countered citing the criteria for the party’s selection is contingent on ‘merit and winnability’. Minj, who changed his loyalty from Congress to BJP in 2003, got elected as Ambikapur Mayor in 2005 as a BJP candidate. Lundra constituency has around 1.94 lakh voters. Minj has defeated sitting Congress MLA Pritam Ram by a convincing margin of 24,128 votes.
Minj worked hard during his poll campaign at Lundra and visited some remot villages where no politician ever visited after Independence. Follow channel on WhatsApp
