Raman Singh Singh, BJP's longest serving current chief minister, is facing a resurgent Congress in Chhattisgarh, a state in which BJP won 10 out of 11 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. After 15 years in power, the man who has been called 'chawal baba' for his subsidised rice schemes is banking on his own special brand of welfare politics - with initiatives like 50 lakh free mobiles phones, additional health insurance of Rs 30, 000 for poor families and tiffin boxes for labourers - to fight off anti-incumbency. Episode 1 of Election With Times travels to Raipur to bring you a ground perspective on how the crucial assembly poll battle Chhattisgarh is shaping up. This episode is the first in a series of election travelogues where reporters from across the Times of India and Navbharat Times travel to each of the battleground states in crucial bellwether assembly elections in 5 states - Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram - which will set the stage for the 2019 general election to bring you the flavours of the election.
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