Vishnu Deo Sai: BJP's tribal face in Chhattisgarh with grassroot connect

Raipur: Vishnu Deo Sai earned his stripes through hard work and dedication in a political journey that began as a sarpanch in Chhattisgarh in 1990 and went on to become multiple-time MP and a Union minister, emerging as the BJP's tribal face known for humility and organisational skills.

The newly-elected MLA from Jashpur district on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister in a glittering ceremony here attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief JP Nadda and a battery of leaders.

He is the fourth chief minister of Chhattisgarh state, which was created in the year 2000.

Sai, 59, is the first tribal chief minister from the BJP which decided to give the top post to a leader from the community that accounts for nearly 32 per cent of the state's population and is the second most dominant social group after OBCs.

The BJP made a stunning comeback to power in the November polls, winning 54 seats in the 90-member state assembly. The Congress, which won 68 seats in 2018, was reduced to 35, while the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) emerged victorious in one assembly constituency.

Despite inheriting a family political legacy and holding key portfolios when he was a Union minister, Sai is known for his down-to-earth approach, work dedication and determination to achieve goals.

Sai has headed the BJP's Chhattisgarh unit three times, displaying the Central leadership's faith in his organisational skills.

Addressing a poll rally in the Kunkuri constituency last month, Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah had urged voters to elect Sai, promising to make him (Sai) a "big man" if the party comes back to power in the state.

Starting his political career as the sarpanch of an obscure village, Sai rose through the ranks and became a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first Council of Ministers after the BJP formed its full majority government in 2014.

Though he hails from a farming family based in a small village, Bagia, in the tribal-dominated Jashpur district, politics runs in the blood of the BJP leader.

Sai's grandfather (late) Budhnath Sai was a nominated MLA from 1947 to 1952. His 'bade pitaji' (elder brother of his father), the late Narhari Prasad Sai was a member of the Jan Sangh (BJP's predecessor) and served as a two-term MLA (1962-67 and 1972-77) and was elected as an MP (1977-79) and served as a Minister of State in the Janata Party government.

Sai's other uncle (late) Kedarnath Sai was also a Jan Sangh member and served as MLA from Tapkara (1967-72).

Vishnu Deo Sai did his schooling at a government school in Kunkuri and went to Ambikapur for graduation but quit his studies midway and returned to his village in 1988. In 1989, he was elected as a 'panch' of Bagia village panchayat and next year became the sarpanch unopposed.

It was BJP stalwart late Dilip Singh Judev who encouraged Sai to enter electoral politics in 1990. In the same year, Sai was elected as an MLA for the first time on a BJP ticket from Tapkara (in Jashpur district) in undivided Madhya Pradesh. He retained the seat in the 1993 assembly polls.

In 1998, he unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls from the adjoining Pathalgaon seat. Later, he was elected as MP from the Raigarh Lok Sabha constituency four times in a row - 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014.

Though the BJP fielded him in the 2003 and 2008 assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, which came into existence as a separate state on November 1, 2000, from Pathalgaon, he lost on both occasions.

After the BJP formed its government at the Centre in 2014 under the leadership of PM Modi, Sai was inducted into his team and made Minister of State for Steel and Mines.

He was among the then 10 sitting BJP MPs in Chhattisgarh who were denied tickets for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The tribal politician served as the BJP's Chhattisgarh chief from 2006 to 2010 and again from January to August 2014.

After the BJP lost power in the state in 2018, he was again given the responsibility to lead the party in Chhattisgarh in 2020. He was replaced with Arun Sao, an OBC leader, in 2022, just a year ahead of the assembly polls.

Ahead of the polls in November this year, Sai was named a member of the BJP national executive in July. He was fielded from Kunkuri (Jashpur district) in the elections which he won by defeating Congress' sitting MLA UD Minj by a margin of 25,541 votes.

The BJP, which had suffered a huge setback in tribal-dominated seats in 2018, put up a good show this time, winning 17 of the 29 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates.

The saffron outfit won all 14 assembly segments in the tribal-dominated Surguja region from where Sai hails, and 8 out of the 12 seats in another Adivasi belt Bastar.

The BJP's comprehensive win in the two tribal turfs contributed to its resounding victory in the assembly polls and return to power in the state after a gap of five years.