The Congress is in search of new faces for the 10 out of 11 lok Sabha seats of Chhattisgarh.
Several leaders, who have been defeated or won the Assembly election, could make efforts for the lS ticket. Party may also give opportunity to some leaders, including Ravindra Choubey, Dharamjeet Singh and Mohammad Akbar for the lS polls. The BJP is also likely to give lS tickets to one or two leaders defeated in the Assembly election.
At present, out of the total 11 seats in the State, 10 are with the BJP and the Congress has the only Korba seat. Union Minister Charan Das Mahant is almost decided to fight the election from Korba, but in the remaining 10 seats the party could field new candidates, as several big leaders have been defeated in the Assembly election and they may make efforts for the lok Sabha seats, instead of waiting for the next five years.
In 2009, the Congress had fielded Ravindra Choubey’s elder brother Pradeep Choubey in the Durg parliamentary constituency. He lost the election to BJP’s Saroj Pandey by 9,954 votes. As Pradeep Choubey has been defeated twice in the seat, in the third time the party could field Ravindra Choubey instead.
Ravindra Choubey has been an MlA from Saja continuously for six times before he lost this election with a margin of only 9,000 odd votes. Earlier also, there were examples of Assembly election defeated candidates having win the lS polls. Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh is the best example. After losing the Assembly election in 1998, Dr Raman Singh had been made the 1999 lok Sabha candidate and he was successful in reaching the Parliament by defeating Congress’ Motilal Vora with a huge margin of votes. Singh had been the Union Minister too.
Such type of experiments could be made by both the BJP and the Congress. Choubey has strong hold at various places including Saja, Bemetara and Durg and he is a well known figure in these constituencies. Therefore, his name could be considered for the lok Sabha polls.
Similarly, Mohammad Akbar, who has been defeated from Kawardha by 2,500 votes, could be fielded from Raipur or Rajnandgaon. He has been MlA continuously for three times from Virendra Nagar and Pandariya seats. Therefore, the party may consider his name for the lS polls. Of the eight Assembly seats of Rajnandgaon lok Sabha constituency, the BJP and the Congress are even at four seats a piece. In the last lS election Madhusudan Yadav had won the seat with a huge margin of 1.19 lakh votes.
Name of Dharamjeet Singh, who has lost the lormi seat, could be considered for the Bilaspur lS seat. In the last election, the Congress had fielded Kota MlA Renu Jogi against Dilip Singh Judeo in this seat. After the demise of Judeo, BJP is yet to decide candidate for the seat. Congress may consider the name of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi for the seat, as he did not fight the assembly election. If Jogi opts for any other seat other than Bilaspur, they Dharamjeet Singh’s name could be considered.
The Congress may field new faces, including those who are defeated or won the assembly, from Raipur, Mahasamund, Janjgir-Champa, Surguja, Kanker and Bastar lS seats.
The BJP may also field the candidates lost the assembly election in one or two seats including Bilaspur, Kanker, Surguja. As the lS election possibly be held in April next and for that notification could be issued in the third week of March, therefore lS ticket claimants could be getting active in a few days.