Chhattisgarh Polls: Two Independent Candidates Who Are Giving Jitters to BJP and Congress in Surguja

Muskaan Rajak, 32, is now used to helicopters flying very often on the Surguja airspace. Rajak, a transgender, and an independent candidate from the Ambikapur Vidhan Sabha constituency, says this is due to the poor conditions of roads in the area, due to which not only people of the area but political leaders, too, are facing problems.

The Surguja airspace these days is dealing with heavy traffic with political leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minster Adityanath of the BJP and All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief Rahul Gandhi addressing back-to-back public meetings to put their weight behind their respective party candidates for the next phase of voting to be held on November 20.

In contrast, independent candidates like Rajak and Krishna Nandan Singh, who are campaigning for themselves as they do not have any star faces to show, are getting a good response from city- dwellers.

Muskaan Rajak was born a transgender or kinnar to Bacchalal Rajak and Shakuntala Rajak, a washerman.

Despite facing opposition from family and society, the Rajaks refused to give away their child to the transgender community and decided to bring up Muskaan like all other children in the family. Muskaan went to school and has studied till standard 8th. S/he says s/he is very lucky to get family support and is now contesting the elections to abide by the “wishes of the people of Ambikapur.”

“I was in no mood to contest the elections because the financial condition of my family is not very good. My father is a washerman and my brothers are also in the same business. I am earning money for my family due to the blessings of the newly-born children in my society,” says Muskaan.

The transgender candidate, who is also a model-cum-actress, says she filed her nomination as an independent candidate after residents of the city, in a very large number, approached me to fight the elections because of zero development work in the constituency.

“There were people from a specific community who approached me in large numbers. They are now fed up with the deteriorating condition of law and order and also with the bad attitude of sitting Congress MLA, T S Singh Deo,” says Muskaan.

The 32-year-old says that T S Singh Baba, who is also the king of Surguja, has never ever cared for the betterment of people of his constituency and not a single development work had been done by him during his tenure.

“You are visiting Ambikapur and you must have faced the bad roads, which are no less than a roller coaster ride. The level of pollution is very high and there is dust everywhere. Our MLA has not got even a single tin shade installed at any public space, be it hospital or railway station or bus stand,” she says, adding that she has got a very good support from the Marwari community and others who are into business.

Muskaan says people from other political parties had tried their best to make her to withdraw her nomination.

“They tried to scare me and even offered me money. The last amount that offered to me on my mobile phone was Rs 5 crore, and the last attempt to scare me was by throwing stones at my home at 3 a.m in the night. But my family is with me and such things will not stop me from contesting the elections,” she says.

On being asked if she is going to join any political party after the polls, Muskaan says she is happy as an independent candidate and does not want to join any “band of thieves”.

Meanwhile, T S Singh Deo, the Congress contestant from the same seat told Newsclick ,that he tried to send feelers to Muskaan but that did not work out.

The ‘Arvind Kejriwal’ of Ambikapur

Another independent candidate, Krishna Nandan Singh, 55, is  known as the ‘local Arvind Kejriwal’ among youth, whose popularity has become a cause for concern for the BJP and Congress candidates.

Singh, who rides his bicycle and campaigns for himself, is known for his crusade against corruption and helping others in case of departmental atrocities. He has been in active politics since 2014 when he contested the Lok Sabha polls, and sayshe is fighting the elections to usher in a change in the society, as he himself has been the victim of departmental politics and corrupt practices in the Chattisgarh Education department. He was earlier working as an assistant teacher but was terminated in December 2010. He claims that this was done because his colleagues did not like his habit of social service.

“The only major thing that I could do in my life was stopping many child marriages in 1994-1995 period. This was not liked by my colleagues because I was very vocal on this issue and then the department started taking action against me. I went to theHigh Court but did not get justice. The case is still in the court and I am now totally in a mood to do politics of change,” he says.