Former Union Minister Renuka Singh, who is among the strong contenders for the Chief Minister's post in Chhattisgarh, on Thursday met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda in Delhi.
The former Minister of State for Tribal Affairs of India is an influential leader in the tribal community.
Singh emerged victorious in the Bharatpur Sonhat Vidhan Sabha constituency of Chhattisgarh. With a margin of 4,337 votes, Renuka Singh triumphs in a closely contested battle.
BJP finalises CM name for Chhattisgarh
According to sources, the BJP high command has finalised the names of the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. This decision was allegedly taken in a meeting on Sunday evening.
Meanwhile, in Chhattisgarh, former Chief Minister Raman Singh could be given the command once again, the sources said.
Notably, the BJP got a landslide victory in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The saffron party created history by winning 163 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 115 seats in Rajasthan and 54 seats in Chhattisgarh. Meanwhile, Congress had to face a crushing defeat in all three states.
It should be mentioned that the BJP has had an excellent strike rate in the Hindi heartland states in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls under PM Modi's leadership and the dismal performance in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh leaves Congress without a powerful satrap to take on the BJP.
About Chhattisgarh polls
Of the 90 assembly constituencies in Chhattisgarh, the BJP bagged 54 while the Congress won 35, claiming a significant vote share of 46.27 per cent to 42.23 per cent of the incumbent Congress. Singh Deo, lost their seats in the poll results declared on Sunday (December 3). He fell short by 94 votes to Rajesh Agarwal of the BJP.
A total of 1,181 candidates across parties pitted themselves against each other for the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly. The polling in the state was held in two phases, with the first on November 7 featuring 223 candidates and the second seeing 958 candidates put their electoral fates to the test on November 17. The major contenders in the battle for the hustings in Chhatisgarh were the BJP, Congress, Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).Other regional outfits, such as the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP), the Hamar Raj Party (HRP) and the Left parties, were also in the fray.
Even as the Congress failed to secure a fresh term at the helm, outgoing Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who faced allegations of receiving payoffs in excess of Rs 500 crores from the promoters of the Mahadev betting app, scored a face-saving over his distant nephew and BJP candidate Vijay Baghel, from the Patan constituency, by a margin of 19,723 votes.BJP stalwart and former CM Raman Singh, who came to be regarded as one of the longest-serving chief ministers of any state while at the helm of Chhattisgarh, prevailed over Congress's Girish Dewangan from the Rajnandgaon constituency by a margin of 45,084 votes.
The Naxal stronghold of Bastar, which was in focus because of the demographic dominance of tribal communities, saw theCongress's Baghel Lakheshwar won over the BJP's Maniram Kashyap by a slender margin of 6,434 votes.
Corruption allegations, particularly with regard to recruitment for government jobs, and the alleged Mahadev betting scam became major political talking points leading up to the Chhattisgarh elections. The BJP's win in Chhattisgarh defied exit-poll projections, which pointed to a close contest and an eventual win for the Congress. The resounding mandate for the BJP in the tribal heartland is also being seen as a thumbs down to the Congress's caste census pledge.
