Christu wants to be a musician, the sort that appears on TV and in the movies. He now plays his drum at weddings and political gatherings in Geedam.

Lakshman Mandavi is a part-time data entry operator in Narayanpur. He wants to be a forest guard.

Tarun Thakur is a food seller at the Tirathgarh waterfalls. He wants any job that pays a monthly wage.

All their parents are marginal peasants, content with their subsistence agriculture and mud huts. But these young adults want none of that old life.

Chhattisgarh has one of the lowest unemployment rates in India thanks to a bouquet of employment schemes. But these young men don’t just want jobs, they want permanent jobs that pay well. They want respect.

The BJP’s Parivartan Yatra tried to convince them that a change of government in the state is the panacea for whatever is holding them back.

The Congress currently holds all 12 seats in tribal-majority Bastar division. It has countered the BJP with its Bharosa Yatras, recounting the welfare schemes of the Bhupesh Baghel government.

“The Congress condemns (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji for doing publicity. Because of the publicity like the Parivartan Yatra and advertisements, we now know about so many skill development programmes of the Centre and about the ways to get loans,” Mandavi told The Telegraph.

“I shall vote only for the party that tells me how to get better jobs and what to study to achieve this.”

Food seller Tarun Thakur holding a quail chick at Tirathgarh in the Kanger Valley National Park. The Telegraph

Christu said: “Most of our (Christu’s band) work has come from the BJP in these elections. They pay on time and they pay well. They also talk to us with respect.”

Many of his band-mates have had stints with the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in school, and the band has performed during the Parivartan Yatra.

“When we ask our local Congress leaders for work, they just get us MGNREGA work and act like they are doing us a favour,” Christu told this newspaper.

“If not government jobs, we should at least get jobs in the malls, or be sent to talent contests. I don’t like MGNREGA work, doing construction and things like that.”

Thakur and his friends watch the “good life” with envy — the good life that is in the Instagram reels of Bastariya singers wearing silken shirts, in the Telugu film scenes shot in Hyderabad and Europe, and in the army fan videos of men in camouflage wearing aviator glasses.

“Whoever wins, just giving MGNREGA jobs or a high MSP (minimum support price) for paddy is not enough,” Thakur said.

“Tirathgarh gets so many tourists but there is not even a proper toilet here. The BJP people said that if they win, everything will become tip-top and getting salaried jobs will become easy. Parties should tell me how exactly they will improve my life.”

Mohini Markam is a matriculate and sells rangoli powder in Jagdalpur’s Sanjay Market. She reels out all the promises made by the BJP and the Congress.

“I told the BJP men who came for campaigning that we don’t want small things any more. Rahul Gandhi has promised free education from nursery to PhD. I want that for my younger sisters,” she said.

“If we study, we can be better than the whole world. Also, if the Congress grants the unemployment allowance, I will take time off this work and go study.”

Markam had to drop out of school to support her family of five. She has a litany of demands for the Baghel government. On top of her list is the removal of all drunken men who loiter around the market at night.

“We are tribal people and this is tribal land. What use is it if I can’t walk around without fear after 10pm? Also, many girls have done nursing (courses) but don’t get permanent jobs,” she said.

“Some even work in shops part-time. Of the two parties, I feel the Congress can fix some of these problems. After Modi came to power, food and cooking gas have become so expensive. If the BJP can’t fix those problems in Delhi, how will they improve Chhattisgarh?”

Veteran Bastar journalist S. Karimuddin, who lives in Jagdalpur, explained that the aspirations of the local youth were now on a par with their peers in more developed parts of India.

“This has happened over a decade. After the displacement caused by the Salwa Judum (anti-Maoist vigilantes), and the murders by the Naxals, people began to ponder about how long they should have to keep fighting and shifting homes,” he told this newspaper.

“Governments created residential educational facilities and study centres with transport facilities for students. Now we have medical students from Bastar in Ukraine, IIT graduates, and many taking up nursing.”

Karimuddin added: “There is now a greed to earn more, and also earn a name for one’s village. These aspirational demands made to the parties are a result of this…. Even the Naxals now don’t oppose villagers who want roads built to their villages.”

Jagdalpur votes on November 7.