Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha election 2024: Named in the Congress’s first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections 2024, its former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who was expected to re-deliver Chhattisgarh to the party in last year’s Assembly polls but failed, is now staring at an uphill task. The party has fielded Baghel from the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bastion for over three decades, and seen as the turf of its former three-time CM Raman Singh.
BJP, which returned to power in the Assembly polls, has lost Rajnandgaon only once since the state was formed in 2000. That was back in a 2007 by-poll, when the Congress’s Devwrat Singh defeated the BJP’s Pradeep Gandhi.
Before Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh as well, Rajnandgaon had been won by the BJP in the previous three polls- 1989, 1996, and 1999, when Raman Singh defeated Congress heavyweight and former Madhya Pradesh CM Motilal Vora. The BJP has only widened the gap between it and the Congress in Rajnandgaon in recent polls.
Congress' Bhupesh Baghel to contest in LS polls from Rajnandgaon
Bhupesh Baghel thanks Congress high command for fielding him in Lok Sabha polls. Following the announcement of his candidature for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel thanked the party's high command and said that the fielded candidates would live up to the trust shown by the party. Baghel has been fielded from the Rajnandgaon constituency in Chhattisgarh.
"I thank the Party High Command for having faith in me. We will live up to the trust shown in all of us. It is a good list of candidates", Baghel told media. Congress released its first list of candidates for 39 Lok Sabha constituencies. The names have been announced for Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshwadeep, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Telangana and Tripura.Of the total 39 candidates announced, 16 are from Kerala, seven from Karnataka and six from Chhattisgarh, and four from Telangana. Two from Meghalaya and one each from Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim and Lakshwadeep.
Out of 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, the BJP bagged nine seats in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019; while the Congress won two of them. Meanwhile, the BJP, in its first candidate list, fielded all 11 candidates from Chhattisgarh, including Santosh Pandey from Rajnandgaon. The Lok Sabha polls are slated to be held in April-May this year.
The party has named six candidates from Chhattisgarh, including former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon, and Tamrdhwaj Sahu from Mahasamund. The candidates were named a day after the meeting of the party's Central Election Committee.
Who is Bhupesh Baghel?
The former CM of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel was the chief of the state Congress between 2014 and 2019. He holds a strong presence in the Patan constituency from where he has won assembly elections multiple times. He has also served as a minister in Digvijaya Singh's government in Madhya Pradesh. Baghel has been elected from the Patan constituency to the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly five times over the past three decades.
Last year in December, the Congress leader won the Patan assembly seat once again with a wide margin of 19,723 votes by defeating his distant nephew and BJP leader Vijay Baghel.
BJP's Santosh Pandey to contest in LS polls from Rajnandgaon
BJP had already released its candidate list of all the 11 seats in Chhattisgarh. The saffron party has fielded Santosh Pandey as its candidate for Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat.
Other candidates from Chhattisgarh
BJP has fielded Vijay Baghel from Durg and Mahesh Kashyap from Bastar.
