As the election draws nearer, the Mahasamund constituency is set to witness a straight fight between two old traditional rivals Congress’s Agni Chandrakar and Bharatiya Janata Party’s Poonam Chandrakar.
Poonam defeated Agni in 2003 election by a margin of only 1.49 per cent votes. In that election the nationalist Congress party candidate Manojkanta Sahu secured third position although 13 candidates were in the fray. Speculation is rife, senior BJP leader vimal Chopra leader may contest the ensuing election as an independent. Sources said Poonam and Agni are likely to file their nomination papers on Oct 29 and Oct 31. With Vimal Chora expected to appear as an independent, it may upset both Congress and BJP’s calculation.
As soon as the party announced the name of Poonam Chandrakar for the election, her supporters burst fire crackers and greeted each other to celebrate the development. Similarly, Agni Chandrakar’s supporters also celebrated the occasion when Congress announced his name. Both Poonam and Agni who belonged to Chandrakar families, are known as traditional rivals.
In the last election of 2008, Agni Chandrakar won the election by securing 52667 votes. The BJP had candidate Moti Sahu was defeated by securing only 47623 votes. With BJP fielding Poonam this time again, the electoral battle is likely to be interesting.