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Purnima S. Tripathi

Raipur: Corporates willy-nilly have to engage with politics in places where their businesses are based. But not always. Witness, the Raigarh Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh.

Raigarh is a bastion of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), part of the Jindal group. JSPL is the largest private sector investor in the State with a commitment of over $6.25 billion. It is also looking to set up a 12.5 million-tonne steel plant in adjoining Orissa with an investment of over $10 billion. The company is planning an 11 million-tonne steel plant in neighbouring Jharkhand at an investment of over $9 billion.

Jindal Power Ltd, a subsidiary of JSPL, has set up the 1000 MW O. P. Jindal Super Thermal Power Plant at Raigarh, investing over Rs 4,500 crore. The last unit of the station was commissioned in the first week of September 2008. JPL has signed an MoU for a 2,520 MW power station with an investment of over Rs 11,340 crore in Chhattisgarh and a 2,640-MW station at an investment of over Rs 11,880 crore in Jharkhand.

The Jindal family has been associated with the Congress. If the Late O. P. Jindal’s son, Naveen, is a Congress MP, O. P. Jindal’s wife is a party member in the Haryana Assembly. Considering this association and the investments the Jindal group has made and planned, one would have thought that the group would be actively associated with the Congress campaign in at least Raigarh if not whole of Chhattisgarh.

Surprisingly, however, the corporate group has not involved itself in politics in Chhattisgarh. Interestingly, even the local Congress activists do not want to be seen associating with it because they fear locals’ anger. It is alleged that the mining activity in the area along with the steel factories and power plants have displaced thousands of families, many of whom are yet to be rehabilitated.

A close associate of the Congress candidate from Raigarh, Mr Hirday Rathiya, said: “We don’t want to be seen as associates of the group because there is a lot of anger among people against the company which might harm our poll prospects.”

Not wanting to be identified, this Congress worker said that the group has also not offered to help the Congress here, maybe fearing a backlash from the BJP State government. “Their commercial interests dictate that they keep the State government in good humour, so they don’t associate themselves with the local politics at all,” said a Congress worker of Raigarh.

The BJP has won the seat comfortably in the last two parliamentary elections. Its State president, Mr Vishnudeo Sai, won the seat in 2004, polling a whopping 50.75 per cent votes, defeating his Congress rival, Mr Rampukar Singh, who managed only 39 per cent votes. In 1999 also, Mr Sai had won the seat polling 48.46 per cent of the votes, defeating Mr Pushpa Devi Singh of the Congress who had fared slightly better with 47.45 per cent votes.

This is but one example of the clashing worlds of politics and business. It remains to be seen how much difference the big names from the corporate world, such as Ms Meera Sanyal of ABN-Amro Bank or Capt Gopinath of erstwhile Deccan Air, will make to the world of politics, or for that matter the quality of life of people in general in their constituencies.

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