Raman Singh, Giant Killer Who Went On To Become Chief Minister Thrice, Looking For 4th Term

Raman Singh, who is one of BJP's longest-serving chief ministers, will contest this year's assembly elections from the Rajnandgaon seat. 

Known as 'chawal wale baba' for his innovative Public Distribution System schemes, Mr Singh was born in 1952 in Kawardha in undivided Madhya Pradesh to an advocate and a homemaker. He pursued Ayurveda and completed his Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS) from the Government Ayurveda College in Raipur in 1975. 

Electoral Journey

Around this time, Mr Singh became associated with the Syama Prasad Mookerjee-founded Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which later merged with the Janata Party. After the Janata Party dissolved in 1980, its former members, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani went on to form the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP. 

Mr Singh was appointed the youth president of Jana Sangh's district unit in 1976 and won his first election in 1983, becoming a municipal councillor in Kawardha.

Seven short years later, he contested the Assembly elections for the first time and was elected an MLA from Kawardha. Elections were held in 1993 and Mr Singh was elected again. He faced his first loss five years later, when he was defeated by Congress' Yogeshwar Raj Singh, the scion of the Kawardha royal family.

In a spectacular bounce-back, however, Mr Singh contested the Lok Sabha elections and won from the Rajnandgaon seat, defeating Congress veteran and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Motilal Vora. The unlikely win earned him the title of a giant killer as well as a place in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet at the Centre as the minister of state for commerce and industry.

Despite the demand first arising in the 1920s, a separate state of Chhattisgarh was created under the BJP-Led National Democratic Alliance in 2000. The party failed to reap the electoral benefits from this, however, with Ajit Jogi of the Congress emerging as the state's first chief minister. 

When the next elections were held in 2003, the BJP managed to secure a majority on its own by winning 50 of the 90 seats. The BJP's main face in the state, Dilip Singh Judeo, was mired in a corruption scandal and that led to the party turning to Raman Singh to be the chief minister.

15-Year Term

In his 15 years as chief minister, one of Mr Singh's biggest achievements was the overhaul of the public distribution system, which earned him the sobriquet of 'chawal wale baba'. He also pushed through the Chhattisgarh Food Security Act, 2012, which was meant to provide food and nutritional security.

On the flip side, his government faced allegations of large-scale corruption. The creation of a state-sponsored militia, Salwa Judum, to take on Maoists in the state also proved very controversial after allegations of violence against villagers. 

Election Loss And What's Next

In the 2018 elections, the Congress swept the state, winning 68 of the 90 seats and reducing the BJP to just 15 from the 49 it had won in the previous polls. This put Mr Singh on a sticky wicket and the BJP has not declared him the chief ministerial candidate for this year's elections, which will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17.  

With the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government appearing popular thanks to its social welfare schemes, Raman Singh, now 71, faces one of the toughest battles of his career.