Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections: Congress Releases Second List Of 53 Candidates After CEC Meet

The Congress released its second list of candidates on Wednesday for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly elections.

The Congress announced its first list of 30 candidates earlier on Sunday.

Source : X@INCIndia

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday released its second list of 53 candidates for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly elections. The list was announced after a Central Election Committee meeting.

The party has fielded Arun Vora, son of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Motilal Vora, from Durg City, while Chhaya Verma, a former member of the Rajya Sabha, has been fielded from Dharsiwa seat.

The party fielded sitting MLA Vikas Upadhyay from the Raipur City West assembly seat, Pankaj Sharma from Raipur Rural and Mahant Ram Sundar Das from the Raipur City South constituency.

Jitin Jaiswal will contest from Jagdalpur and Shailesh Pandey from Bilaspur, the state’s ruling party announced.

Congress releases second list of 53 candidates for upcoming Chhattisgarh Elections pic.twitter.com/kvZpNbYdq2

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With the second list, the total number of candidates declared by the Congress went up to 83 out of the total of 90.

The party announced its first list of 30 candidates earlier on Sunday. The list featured names of prominent leaders, including Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and his deputy T S Singh Deo. Baghel was fielded from his Patan assembly constituency while Deo was fielded from Ambikapur.

The Congress fielded Girish Devangan to contest against former chief minister and BJP leader Raman Singh from the Rajnandgaon constituency while Chhattisgarh assembly speaker Charan Das Mahant was re-nominated from his Sakti seat.

Of the 30 constituencies for which the party announced its candidates, 14 are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and three for Scheduled Caste (SC) categories.

In the remaining of the 13 general seats, candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) were named in nine seats. The list also has names of four women candidates, including a sitting minister and two MLAs.

Asked if the saffron party was planning to take advantage of the presence of parties such as the Ajit Jogi-founded Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and some other smaller outfits, CM Bhupesh Baghel said, "You have to understand the chronology. On one hand Amit Jogi (of the Ajit Jogi-founded party) files a case in court, on the other hand, he gets security. The alliance between the JCC(J) and Bahujan Samaj Party has ended." 

The Chhattisgarh assembly elections will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17. The counting of votes will be on December 3.

Apart from Chhattisgarh, assembly elections in four other states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram – will be held next month.