The high-octane Chhattisgarh Assembly elections are set to witness an uncle-nephew clash, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielding Vijay Baghel from Patan, the turf of chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel. Patan is currently represented by CM Baghel.
With the state polls just months away, ABP conducted its CVoter survey on whether the saffron party’s move was a deliberate one to drag the incumbent chief minister into a personal fight against his nephew. According to the survey, of the total participants, 46.1% of the voters answered in the affirmative, as against 43% who chose to disagree. Another 11.4% of the voters refused to share their opinion.
Notably, this Baghel vs Baghel fight is not new. This is the fourth time that Vijay Baghel will face his uncle in Patan and the third time as a BJP candidate. The Durg MP had defeated his uncle from Patan in 2008, with a margin of nearly 7,500 votes. However, Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel emerged victorious in 2003 and 2013.
Patan is being seen as a crucial seat for the chief minister, who has won five times from the constituency.
Earlier on Thursday, the BJP released its first list of 21 candidates for the 90-member Chhattisgarh elections scheduled later this year. Apart from fielding Vijay Baghel from Patan, the list also included the names of five women.
The saffron party fielded Bhulan Singh Maravi from Premnagar, Laxmi Rajwade from Bhatgaon, Praboj Bhinj from Lundra (ST), Sarla Kosaria from Saraipali (SC), Shakuntala Singh Porthe from Pratappur (ST), Alka Chandrakar from Khallari, Gita Ghasi Sahu from Khujji, Rohit Sahu from Rajim, and Maniram Kashyap from Bastar (ST), among others.
Meanwhile, the ABP CVoter opinion poll further revealed CM Baghel as the most favoured candidate for the top post, with a significant lead of 25% over his BJP counterpart Raman Singh.
[Disclaimer: Current survey findings and projections are based on CVoter Pre Poll personal interviews (Face to Face) conducted among 18+ adults statewide, all confirmed voters, details of which are mentioned right below the projections as of today. The data is weighted to the known demographic profile of the States. Sometimes the table figures do not sum to 100 due to the effects of rounding. Our final data file has Socio-Economic profile within +/- 1% of the Demographic profile of the State. We believe this will give the closest possible trends. The sample spread is across all Assembly segments in the poll bound state. MoE is +/- 3% at macro level and +/- 5% at micro level VOTE SHARE projection with 95% Confidence interval.]