Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections: Congress on Friday released a list of 40-star campaigners for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly elections. Among the prominent names on the list are the party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, state in-charge Kumari Selja, party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and others.
Here's the full list of star campaigners
The list also includes the names of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, party leaders TS Singh Deo, Alka Lamba and Ajay Maken.
Earlier, the party had released its second list of 53 candidates for the upcoming Assembly election in Chhattisgarh. The party has fielded Chhaya Verma, a former member of the Rajya Sabha, from Dharsiwa seat while Arun Vora, son of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Motilal Vora, has been given a ticket from Durg City.
Some other prominent candidates who have been named in the second list are Khelsai Singh from Premnagar seat, Atal Srivastav from Kota, Baleshwar Sahu from Jaijaipur, Mahant Ram Sundar Das from Raipur City South and Devendra Yadav from Bhilai Nagar.
Notably, in the first list of 30 candidates, Congress has fielded Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel from Patan. Another senior Congress leader and Deputy CM TS Singh Deo will contest from Ambikapur.
Chhattisgarh Assembly elections
The polling in Chhattisgarh will take place in two phases. The first phase of polling for 20 seats in Chhattisgarh will take place on November 7, 2023. The remaining 70 seats in the state will go to polls on November 17. The counting of votes will take place on December 3. The tenure of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly is scheduled to end on 3 January 2024.
In the last polls, the Congress won 68 of the total 90 assembly seats, while the BJP finished a distant second at 15. The Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J), founded by former CM late Ajit Jogi, bagged five seats and its ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won in two segments.
The BJP currently has 13 seats in the House, JCC(J) has 3 and the BSP has 2 seats. One seat is currently lying vacant. The Congress is aiming to win 75 seats in 2023 by riding high on the popularity of Baghel, who has a significant hold over OBC and rural voters, and the impact of the government's welfare schemes focused on farmers, tribals and the poor.
