BJP releases first list of 21 candidates in Chhattisgarh; names 16 new faces

Raipur: The Bharatiya Janata Party which is eyeing a comeback in Chhattisgarh in the coming assembly elections on Thursday released its first list of candidates for 21 seats where it had lost to the Congress in 2018.

There are 16 fresh faces in the list while five candidates are former MLAs. The list contains five women.

The election schedule for the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly is yet to be announced.

Of the 21 seats for which nominees were announced by the BJP, ten are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and one for Scheduled Castes (SC).

All these 21 seats are currently held by the ruling Congress.

The BJP's first list includes Durg MP Vijay Baghel who would contest from Patan, the assembly constituency of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

Vijay Baghel had defeated Bhupesh Baghel in 2008 assembly elections from the same seat. But in 2013 he lost to Bhupesh Baghel.

Vijay Baghel also heads the 31-member `Ghoshna Patra Samiti' or poll manifesto committee of the BJP for the coming polls.

Former Chhattisgarh minister Ramvihcar Netam would contest from Ramanujganj (ST) seat where he had suffered defeat in 2013 against incumbent Congress MLA Brihaspat Singh. Both Vijay Baghel and Netam did not contest the 2018 assembly elections.

BJP spokesperson Devlal Halwa Thakur would contest from Daundi Lohara (ST) seat while former MLAs Sanjeev Shah, Shravan Markam and Lakhanlal Dewangan would contest from Mohla-Manpur (ST), Sihawa (ST) and Korba seats, respectively.

Rajnandgaon Zila Panchayat president Geeta Ghasi Sahu has been fielded from Khujji seat while Rajnandgaon Zila Panchayat vice president Vikrant Singh, a relative of senior BJP leader and former chief minister Raman Singh, will contest from Khairagarh seat.

The other candidates in the list are Bhulan Singh Maravi (from Premnagar seat), Prabhoj Minj (Lundra-ST), Mahesh Sahu (Kharsia), Harishchandra Rathiya (Dharamjaigarh- ST), Pranav Kumar Parpachhi (Marwahi- ST), Indrakumar Sahu (Abhanpur), Rohit Sahu (Rajim), Asharam Netam (Kanker-ST), Maniram Kashyap (Bastar-ST), Laxmi Rajwade (Bhatgaon), Shakuntala Singh Porthe (Pratappur- ST), Sarla Kosaria (Saraipali- SC) and Alka Chandrakar (Khallari).

Senior journalist and political analyst R Krishna Das said the BJP seemed to have declared candidates in the first list for the seats where there were not much differences within the party over the nominees.

While in 2018 the saffron party had drawn blank in all 21 seats, even in 2013 (when it retained power in the state) it had suffered defeat in 16 of these seats, he noted.

Declaration of candidates so early will benefit the candidates who will have sufficient time for preparations, he added.