Chhattisgarh Assembly elections: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released the first list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly elections. The BJP in 2018 had won only 15 of the 90 seats in the Chhattisgarh Assembly against 68 of the Congress.
In Chhattisgarh, the BJP has fielded Lok Sabha MP Vijay Baghel from Patan, Bhulan Singh Maravi from Premnagar, Laxmi Rajwade from Bhatgaon, Shakuntala Singh Porthe from Pratappur (ST), Sarla Kosaria from Saraipali (SC), Alka Chandrakar from Khallari, Gita Ghasi Sahu from Khujji and Maniram Kashyap from Bastar (ST), among others. Vijay Baghel is BJP's Lok Sabha member from the Durg parliamentary constituency.
The names were decided at the BJP's Central Election Committee meeting on Wednesday which was chaired by party chief JP Nadda and attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah among other senior leaders.
In the 2018 Chhattisgarh Assembly Election, the Congress won 19 of 21 seats. The Ajit Jogi-led Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) won the remaining two seats (Marwahi and Khairagarh). The BJP won none.
Terming BJP's announcement as unimportant Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel said, "I came to know that they (BJP) have released the first list of 21 candidates (for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections) but it's not important (kuch khas nahi hai)..."
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh BJP state president Arun Sao said, "In the last five years, Bhupesh Baghel-led government has turned Chhattisgarh into a hub of crime and corruption. It cheated and looted all sections of the state and the development work is at a standstill. The people of Chhattisgarh have understood that the future of the state is safe in the hands of the BJP... Definitely, the lotus will bloom in Chhattisgarh in November."
Here is the list of BJP candidates for Chhattisgarh Assembly Election 2023:
- Premnagar: Bhulan Singh Maravi
- Bhatgaon: Laxmi Rajwade
- Pratappur: Shakuntala Singh Porthe
- Ramanujganj: Ramvichar Netam
- Lundra: Praboj Bhinj
- Kharsia: Mahesh Sahu
- Dharamjaigarh: Harishchandra Rathia
- Korba: Lakhanlal Dewangan
- Marwahi: Pranav Kumar Marpachhi
- Saraipali: Sarla Kosaria
- Khallari: Alka Chandrakar
- Abhanpur: Indrakumar Sahu
- Rajim: Rohit Sahu
- Sihawa: Shravan Markam
- Dondi Lohara: Devlal Halwa Thakur
- Patan: Vijay Baghel
- Khairagarh: Vikrant Singh
- Khujji: Geeta Ghasi Sahu
- Mohala-Manpur: Sanjeev Saha
- Kanker: Asharam Netam
- Bastar: Maniram Kashyap
