After finishing schooling, going to college was the next logical step for a young tribal man from the Jashpur region of the then undivided Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s, but Vishnu Deo Sai was forced to take over agricultural duties for his family instead. Now 59 years old, for Mr. Sai, this was one of many occasions where he had to abandon a set plan and take unexpected turns. However, each time, he managed to claw his way back in a journey whose latest pit stop is the Office of Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh.
His erstwhile aides and party colleagues recall how Mr. Sai, who hails from a political family in Jashpur, a tribal-dominated district that shares borders with areas of Odisha and Jharkhand having similar demographics, started going to Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams in his younger days. These Ashrams, now spread across the country, first came up in Jashpur with support from the RSS in 1952. Their prime objective was checking the growing influence of Christian missionaries among the tribes in the region.
He became a village council member in 1990, and the sarpanch of his native village Bagia (unopposed) shortly thereafter. Having displayed his potential and organisational capabilities, Mr. Sai needed a mentor for his continued rise, and he found one in the late Dilip Singh Judev, a prominent member of the Jashpur royal family and a well-known anti-conversion crusader.
