Election campaign has gained momentum in the Chhattisgarh capital of Raipur where tough contest is expected among political heavyweights on four constituencies.
The four seats which will go to polls are Raipur south, Raipur north, Raipur west and Raipur rural. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had captured three seats in last election leaving the Congress with only one.
Earlier, Raipur was having only two seats but the delimitation commission carved out two more constituencies in 2008 taking the total number of seats in Raipur to four.
The BJP had won two seats with huge margin in the last election, while in third seat the contest was tough and its candidate had won with a margin of only 3,000 votes. The Congress candidate Kuldip Singh Juneja had won from the Raipur-north seat with a very thin margin of 1500 votes.
Raipur-south itting legislator and Cabinet Minister Brijmohan Agrawal has been fielded again by the BJP to contest from Raipur-South constituency. Agrawal is a political veteran and he was earlier contesting from Raipur seat before the constituency delimitation.
It was for the fifth time in a row he was elected to Assembly in 2008. He was facing as many as 21 candidates against him and 20 of them had forfeited their deposits. Although the Congress had fielded its youth leader Yogesh Tiwari, he could not do well. Tiwari had lost by a huge margin.
The Congress this time has fielded Raipur mayor Kiranmayee Nayak against Agrawal. She was elected as Mayor by a margin of more than 2500. She has been quite active in the area.
Raipur-south is home to over 203,000 electorates and a sizable population belonged to ethnic Kurmi community. Besides it is also home to large number of Muslim population. Many believe, it will not be a cake walk for Agrawal this time as both Kurmi and Muslim community are traditionally known as Congress supporters and may bless Kiranmayee.
Raipur-west
The BJP has fielded Rajesh Munat again. Munat is a minister in the present state government and holds the commerce and industry departments and housing and environment department. He came from youth wing of the party and has own three successive terms by a good margin.
Although during the last ten years Munat has managed to build a strong public base, he is likely to face tough contest as the Congress has fielded Vikas Upadhyay, a popular youth leader, against him.
He has been active as a leader of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress party and in the past three months he has been in close contact with the people of the constituency. Raipur-west has also several Congress counselors, a factor likely to work in favour of him.
The seat has over two lakh electorates. With Vikas Upadhyay in the race, the fight is likely to be straight and tough this time, analysts feel.
Raipur-Rural
This constituency comprises of some urban area as well as large part of rural area located around. This seat which is home to about 2.15 lakh electorates had seen 19 candidates in last election.
BJP’s Nand Kumar Sahu last won this seat by a margin of three thousands votes from his nearest rival Congress’s Satyanarayan Sharma. Both are fielded by their respective parties.
While Sahu is likely to face some anti incumbency, Sharma was seen campaigning in both rural and urban area much before the announcement of the election.
Raipur-North
Although about a dozen candidates contested the last election, the Congress’s Kuldeep Singh Juneja won it by a margin of 1500 votes defeating his nearest rival of BJP’s Sachidanand Upasane. About ten other candidates were in the scene but all of them had forfeited their deposits.
While the Congress has nominated Juneja again, The BJP has fielded well known businessman Shrichand Sundrani against him. Sundrani has worked as chairman of local chamber of commerce for a long time and has good relation with businessmen community.
He belonged to Sindhi community which has a sizable population in the constituency. Since the party has denied ticket to Upasane, his supporters are likely to work against Sundrani, many believe.