Congress candidate for Antagarh bypoll, Manturam Pawar filed his nomination papers at the District Collectorate here on Wednesday. Pawar reached the Collectorate while leading a massive rally of his supporters along with senior State-level party leaders.
Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CGPCC) president, Bhupesh Baghel besides other senior party leaders from across the State especially from Bastar, Kanker and Balod were present when Pawar filed his nomination. Earlier, the senior party leaders addressed a public meeting and urged the voters to support Pawar in the bypoll.
Notably, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded senior party leader Bhojraj Nag from this seat. Nag had filed his nomination in presence of the party State president Dharamlal Kaushik a day earlier in the presence of senior leaders Prem Prakash Pandey and Brijmohan Agrawal. Hundreds of people had participated in a rally taken out in support of the BJP candidate.
Meanwhile, BJP faced some rebel trouble in Antagarh as local party leader Raghunath Kumethi announced to contest the election as an independent candidate and also filed his nomination on the last day of filing nomination here. Kumethi, who was stated to be close-aide of BJP MP and former State Forest Minister Vikram Usendi, had claimed his candidature before the party’s State General Secretary (Coordination) Rampratap Singh for the Antagarh seat.
After the party refused him the ticket ,and declared Nag as its official candidate, Kumethi filed his nomination as an independent candidate, sources stated. However, last date for withdrawing the nomination is August 30 and many senior leaders of the BJP are making their attempts to persuade Kumethi to withdraw his nomination.
Tribal reserved Antagarh seat in Kanker district has been vacant since Vikram Usendi, the sitting MlA, resigned from the seat after winning the lok Sabha polls from Kanker seat. Coming into existence in 2008 after delimitation, Antagarh (ST) seat was won consecutively twice by BJP’s Usendi. Wednesday was the last date for filing of the nomination. Subsequently, the scrutiny will be done on August 28 and candidates can withdraw their names by August 30. The result will be declared on September 16.