When the outcomes of the Chhattisgarh Meeting elections 2023 had been declared, political observers and members alike had been surprised. The BJP had secured 54 seats in opposition to the incumbent Congress’s 36, overturning what appeared like an insurmountable benefit for the ruling social gathering.
Whereas many scrambled to elucidate this dramatic reversal, one man had predicted it two years prematurely: Nitin Nabin, the BJP’s co-in-charge for Chhattisgarh. Yesterday, 14 December 2025, Nabin was introduced to be the working president of the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP).
A four-time MLA from Bihar’s Bankipur constituency, Nabin had been working quietly in Chhattisgarh for years.
As early as 2021, he had declared with confidence that the 2023 elections would witness the defeat of the Congress authorities. On the time, such predictions appeared audacious, even delusional. The Congress held 68 seats within the 90-member meeting, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel appeared firmly in management, and the BJP languished at a historic low of simply 15 seats.
Hindsight now reveals that Nabin’s prediction was not bravado however a declare rooted in a deep understanding of the state’s political undercurrents and a methodical technique that will be executed over years.
The Unattainable Job
To understand the magnitude of what Nabin and his colleagues achieved, one should first perceive the size of the problem.
In 2018, the BJP had crashed to its worst efficiency in Chhattisgarh’s historical past, securing a mere 33 per cent vote share. The Congress, using excessive on anti-incumbency in opposition to the Raman Singh authorities, had captured 43 per cent of the votes and a commanding legislative majority.
Bridging a 10-point vote share hole is tough in any election. Doing so whereas concurrently overcoming a deficit of 53 seats appeared just about unimaginable. Most political analysts, even these prepared to entertain the potential of a more in-depth contest, nonetheless predicted a Congress victory. The standard knowledge was clear: Chhattisgarh was a completed deal for Bhupesh Baghel.
The BJP election in-charges, nonetheless, thought in another way. Nabin, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, and senior BJP chief Om Mathur recognised that beneath the floor of Congress’s obvious dominance lay deep vulnerabilities that may very well be exploited with the best method and adequate endurance.
Understanding the Floor Actuality
Whereas a lot of the media targeted on the Baghel authorities’s welfare initiatives—the farm mortgage waivers, bonus funds over the Minimal Assist Value for paddy cultivators, and subsidies underneath the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana—the BJP election equipment underneath Nabin, Mandaviya, and Mathur recognized a rising undercurrent of discontent amongst voters.
The Congress authorities had made a important error that they had been fast to recognise: it had prioritised handouts over arduous infrastructure.
This was harking back to the UPA authorities’s method on the nationwide degree, the place welfare schemes took priority over constructing roads, bridges, and different important infrastructure.
What the Congress failed to understand—however Nabin and colleagues understood clearly—was that poor infrastructure hurts the poorest residents essentially the most.
Whereas farmers appreciated the money transfers and mortgage waivers, they had been annoyed by roads that turned impassable throughout monsoons, by the dearth of dependable electrical energy, and by the overall deterioration of public providers.
Moreover, legislation and order within the state was seen to be declining underneath Congress’s watch. These grievances may not have made headlines, however they had been actual, and so they had been festering.
The Tribal Technique
Considered one of Nabin-Mandaviya-Mathur’s most vital contributions to the BJP’s victory was their give attention to tribal constituencies. Chhattisgarh has 29 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, and in 2018, the Congress had swept these areas, profitable 25 of them whereas the BJP managed solely three.
Reversing this deficit was central to any viable path to victory, and Nabin made tribal outreach a precedence all through his tenure as state co-incharge. The hassle was not restricted to the election season however was a steady engagement spanning years.
The outcomes vindicated his technique spectacularly. The BJP secured leads in 17 ST seats whereas Congress might handle solely 12. This represented a major reversal of fortunes in tribal areas and was instrumental within the general victory.
This tribal outreach was not an remoted initiative however a part of a broader BJP technique that Nabin helped coordinate throughout a number of states. Comparable beneficial properties had been made in Rajasthan, the place the BJP improved from 9 to 12 ST seats, and in Madhya Pradesh, the place the social gathering jumped from 16 to twenty-eight tribal constituency victories.
The Ladies’s Card
Whereas Nabin laid the groundwork by organizational work, the marketing campaign itself required a game-changing electoral proposition. This got here within the type of the Mahtari Vandan Yojana, a promise that every one eligible married ladies in Chhattisgarh would obtain Rs 1,000 monthly from the federal government.
The scheme was branded as Modi Ki Assure, linking it on to the Prime Minister’s credibility. However the execution on the bottom required meticulous group—and that is the place Nabin’s years of constructing the social gathering equipment proved invaluable.
Earlier than the elections, the BJP had already registered 50 lakh ladies for the scheme by kinds. This large enrollment drive was a testomony to the organisational capability that Nabin and his colleagues had constructed. The Congress recognised the menace, with Chief Minister Baghel even interesting to the Election Fee, alleging that the registration drive violated the Mannequin Code of Conduct.
The panic within the Congress camp was justified. The Mahtari Vandan Yojana turned one of many decisive components in mobilizing ladies voters towards the BJP.
The Revival of the Cadre
Maybe Nabin’s most enduring contribution was the revival of the Chhattisgarh BJP cadre itself. After the demoralising defeat of 2018, the social gathering’s staff wanted not simply technique but in addition hope and course. Nabin, together with Mandaviya and Mathur, supplied each.
For years, the state BJP management had struggled to wrest the narrative from the Congress. Baghel dominated the discourse, and the opposition appeared perpetually on the defensive. Nabin’s sustained presence within the state, his accessibility to native staff, and his confidence in an eventual victory helped restore morale and function to the group.
By the point the 2023 marketing campaign started in earnest, the BJP had a motivated, organised, and strategically aligned cadre able to execute a classy electoral operation. This transformation didn’t occur in a single day. It was the results of years of affected person organizational work.
Classes from an Unattainable Victory
The Chhattisgarh results of 2023 stands as a testomony to the facility of long-term planning, organizational power, and strategic endurance. Whereas others targeted on the Congress’s obvious invincibility, Nitin Nabin and his colleagues recognized its vulnerabilities and spent years positioning the BJP to take advantage of them.
His early prediction of a Congress defeat, made in 2021 when such a declare appeared absurd, was not hole political posturing however the confidence of somebody who understood each the weaknesses of the incumbent and the potential of his personal social gathering’s equipment.
The victory in Chhattisgarh was in the end the triumph of the state BJP cadre, however behind that cadre stood leaders like Nitin Nabin, who had spent years making ready the organisation for the competition.
Chhattisgarh 2023 was Nitin Nabin’s vindication.
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