Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday surprised many in Chhattisgarh as it declared a complete unknown political person as its candidate for the chief minister post if party wins assembly polls next month.
Chhattisgarh goes to polls for the 90-member state legislative assembly in two phases on November 12 and November 20. The results will be declared on December 11.
AAP said that a tribal person Komal Upendi will be the CM face of the party in the mineral-rich state where tribals make up roughly 30 percent of state’s 2.55 crore population. Party has fielded Upendi from his home constituency Bhanupratappur in Kanker district.
Gopal Rai, minister in Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, announced the name of party’s CM candidate at a press conference in Raipur.
He admitted that several key names were discussed for the CM candidate including Soni Sori, noted activist from insurgency-riddled Bastar region, but finally the party decided to pick Upendi as the consensus candidate.
AAP also released a list of four more candidates, Siyaram Thakur for Bindranavagarh seat, Indranath Sai for Kunkuri seat, Raja Thakur for Rajim seat and Jitendra Chandravanshi for Pandaria seatRai, who is also the party in-charge for Chhattisgarh, announced a new candidate Varun Tiwari in stead of Saurabh Nirvani for Rajnandgaon seat from where Chief Minister Raman Singh would be the BJP candidate.