Amid protests and intense threat of sabotage, Chhattisgarh’s opposition Congress declared its third list of candidates, comprising 24 names, taking the total to 86 for the current Assembly elections on Tuesday evening. The BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh goes to polls on November 11 and November 19 to elect a new 90-member State legislative Assembly.
Accepting that some heart burns were obvious on the side of losers, Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president Charandas Mahant however expressed confidence that the entire party will fight the ensuing elections unitedly under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. Notably, the third list of Congress was not only far from being impressive, it also left many party leaders high and dry even if four more contentious seats are yet to be decided pending consensus.
Though the party high command made efforts to balance the list by accommodating every section as also kin of Jeeram Valley massacre victim, it also left many chances of sabotage by denying tickets to some potential claimants.
While sitting MlA of lundra constituency Ramdev Ram was denied ticket by accommodating Chintamani Maharaj, none of the sitting MlAs except Mohammad Akbar was allowed to change their constituency, Rudra Guru, Dr Shiv Daheria, Tamradhwaj Sahu and others facing protests on their home turfs were given ticket from the same constituencies except Mohd Akbar who has been shifted to Kawardha at the cost of annoying Yogiraj Singh of royal family who had lost the last poll to Siyaram Sahu of BJP.
The party has once again fielded Brihaspati Singh, a formidable challenger against BJP heavyweight and Minister Ramvichar Netam from Ramanujganj, and Nobel Verma, who has joined the party after ditching Nationalist Congress Party from Chandrapur constituency despite stiff opposition by former chief minister Ajit Jogi.
Four seats are still undecided as the party high command Tuesday asked the state leaders to forge consensus over the candidates. These seats are Akaltara, Ahiwara, Gunderdehi and Sanjari Balod. Most significant among them is Akaltara Constituency where fate of Saurabh Singh, the sitting MlA, who recently joined Congress fold after quitting BSP is held up as Ajit Jogi opposed his candidature tooth and nail.
According to the list Gulab Singh Kamro has been fielded from Bharatpur-Sonhat (ST) seat, Gulab Singh from Manendragarh, Paras Rajwade from Bhatgaon, Premsai Singh Tekam from Pratappur (ST), Brihaspati Singh from Ramanujgaj (ST), Pritamram Singh from Samri (ST), Chintamani Singh from lundra (ST), Sarhul Bhagat from Jashpur (ST), Padma Manhar from sarangarh (SC).
laljeet Singh Rathiya from Dharamjaigarh (ST), Jaisingh Agrawal from Korba, Siyaram Kaushik from Bilha, Bhuvneshwar Yadav from Beltara, Motilal Devangan from Janjgir-Champa, Nobel Verma from Chandrapur, Dr Shiv Kumar Dahariya from Bilaigarh (SC), Janakram Verma from Baloda Bazar, Anita Yogendra Sharma from Dharsiwa, Rudra Kumar Guru from Aarang (SC), Janakram Dhruw from Bindranawagarh (ST), Pratima Chandrakar from Durg (Rural), Bhajan Singh Nirankari from Vaishali Nagar, lalji Chandrawanshi from Pandariya and Mohd Akbar from Kawardha.