With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) keeping away from announcing a chief minister’s face for the upcoming elections in Chhattisgarh, former chief minister Raman Singh has said that the party functions on the principle of “collective leadership”.While the Congress has centred its campaign around incumbent chief minister Bhupesh Baghel government’s achievements, questions have remained around who will steer the BJP state leadership.However, not just in Chhattisgarh, the BJP has also not announced a chief ministerial face for Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which are also going to the polls next month, raising questions about a leadership vacuum at the state level for the saffron party.Questions had surfaced over whether Singh, who has been a three-term chief minister and has headed the BJP government in the state for 15 years from 2003 until the Congress trounced the saffron party in the last assembly elections in 2018, would be projected as the party’s chief ministerial face. On October 9, Singh’s name featured in the BJP’s second list which included a total of 64 candidates. Singh has been given the party ticket from Rajnandgaon. In the first list, the BJP fielded Durg MP Vijay Baghel to take on his uncle Bhupesh Baghel from the Patan constituency.Singh said to The Wire that Vijay Baghel and him will work together while the party’s campaign will highlight the Congress government’s corruption record and make it the biggest issue in this election.The BJP has accused the Baghel-led Congress government of a series of scams. This includes the multi-crore public distribution system (PDS) scam, alleged scam worth Rs 5,000 crore in the Centre-sponsored free grains scheme launched to provide support during the Covid pandemic, the Enforcement Directorate is also probing Rs 2,161-crore liquor scam, in which senior government functionaries have been arrested and their bail pleas rejected by the Chhattisgarh high court as recently as last week. The incumbent government is also facing allegations of a coal levy scam in which two Congress MLAs and an IAS officer are accused.Chhattisgarh will vote in two phases on November 7 and November 17. In 2018, the Congress won 68 seats to vote out the Raman Singh government, with the BJP winning only 15 seats that year.In an interview with The Wire, Singh spoke about the BJP’s campaign plans, and the leadership questions in the state.What are the issues that the BJP will be focusing on in this election?We will focus on the corruption that has taken place in the state in the last five years, the scams that have taken place from liquor to coal scam to grains to PDS scam. All the promises that they had made in their poll manifesto – they are all incomplete and have not been fulfilled. Development has come to a standstill in the state.Would you say that corruption will be the biggest issue this election for the BJP then?Yes, we see corruption as the biggest issue that needs highlighting.The Baghel government says that these scams and the probes that are underway are political vendetta. How do you see this?They can say it is political vendetta but ED has presented a 13,000-page charge sheets in court (in liquor scam case), their senior IAS officers are in jail and not being given bail, their undeclared assets have been seized, cases are going in courts and yet they are saying there is no corruption.Congress is going to the people with the schemes that they have brought in the last five years and highlighting regional pride and Chhattisgariyavaad [The Congress under Baghel has aggressively promoted regional identity through this pitch through the promotion of regional art, culture, sports, festivals, in an ostensible effort to tackle the BJP-RSS’ Hindutva pitch in the state]. How do you see this narrative?Development has completely stopped; there has been no vikaas in the state. As far as the Chhattisgariyavaad that they keep talking about goes, what Chhattisgariyavaad has Congress done? They were supposed to send three candidates to the Rajya Sabha. All three were from outside Chhattisgarh, from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and people from other states were made Rajya Sabha MPs. And they are talking about Chhattisgariyavaad?The BJP has not put up a CM’s face in Chhattisgarh. You have been chief minister for three terms. But the party has not declared anyone as the party’s CM’s face yet. How do you see this?Yes, after the 2003, 2008 and 2013 elections I became the chief minister but even at that time [before the elections] no one had been declared as the chief ministerial candidate by the party. The BJP works on the basis of collective leadership and does not project any CM candidate ahead of elections.Shall we see you and Vijay Baghel then working together as no CM face has been projected?Our motto is collective leadership and we will all work together and everyone’s hard work will be a part of it.BJP has decided to field Vijay Baghel from the Patan constituency against chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. Is there a caste calculation behind this to woo voters from the Other Backward Classes?Caste politics is not an issue for us. BJP has worked for the upliftment of the OBC community and given them importance.How do you see the caste survey pitch being raised by the Congress party? They have also promised to conduct a caste survey if they are re-elected in the state. Do you think it will have any resonance in these elections?After the polls were announced they remembered the caste survey. They did not do anything for the last five years. And before that Congress headed governments at the centre for years but did not do anything about it. This is being raked up for polls only.What about tribal welfare? Chhattisgarh has a large tribal population (about 30%). What will be the BJP’s strategy for their welfare?BJP has always made policies for the tribals and their upliftment. We have brought schemes to give them jobs, and bring them education. We have developed the entire infrastructure for them in Bastar and Surguja. Any development or vikas that has happened to the tribals in Chhattisgarh has taken place during the BJP’s tenure.