Meet Renuka Singh, Union Minister Contesting Polls In Chhattisgarh

Renuka Singh, a minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet, is a candidate in the Chhattisgarh polls and will be contesting from the Bharatpur-Sonhat (ST reserved) seat in Koriya district.

The voting for the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly will be spread over two phases - November 7 and 17.

BJP sources say the reasoning behind fielding a cabinet minister for the state polls is that the party is hoping that big-name candidates will secure seats in areas where it is weaker.

The party has not projected a chief minister in all the five poll-going states - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram - in an attempt to keep regional leaders' ambitions and rivalries in check, underscoring the "party above individual" maxim.

Additionally, the party is hoping, an open chief minister's post will act as an incentive to encourage regional leaders to work harder.

Renuka Singh, the Minister of state for Tribal Affairs, got her first big political break in 2003 when she became the Minister of Women and Child Development in the then Raman Singh government.

This was topped by her becoming a minister in the Modi cabinet in 2019. It is believed that she was able to turn the tide in the BJP's favour in Sarguja during the 2019 general elections. It was the very region where the BJP lost 14 seats in the state polls a year before in 2018.

Ms Singh, 59, avenged her 2013 loss to Congress candidate by defeating him in 2019 polls by over 1.5 lakh votes.

The Minister, who represents the powerful Gond community, has studied till Class XII.

Last month, Ms Singh was served a poll code violation notice by the Election Commission. The Minister arrived in Sonhat for a public relations campaign, with more than 40 vehicles as part of her convoy and for which she reportedly had not taken permission.

In May 2020, the Minister hit the headlines for her "belt with belt" threat for officials.

"Andheri kothri me le ja ke na main belt khol ke thokna jaanti hu bohot acche se (I know how to lock people in a room and beat them with a belt)," the minister was caught on camera threatening officials at a virus quarantine centre in Balrampur, around 400 km from Chhattisgarh capital Raipur.

In October 2020, the Minister answered in Parliament attributing data to a study that possibly did not exist, reported Down To Earth.

In September 2020, the Minister told Rajya Sabha that less than three per cent of people in tribal areas had been infected by the coronavirus disease, referencing a study by IIT-Delhi.

Down To Earth reporter filed an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI) with the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs and IIT-Delhi, asking for the study as well as the methodology used for the study. The responses to both RTIs suggest that no such study was carried out by IIT- Delhi, it said.  

The Congress had registered a humongous victory in the 2018 polls winning 68 seats and comfortably forming the government. The BJP was reduced to 15 seats, while the JCC (J) and the BSP bagged 5 and 2 seats, respectively.