Rajesh Agarwal will represent the party from the Ambikapur constituency while Sushant Shukla and Dhaniram Dhivar will represent Beltara and Kasdol respectively. Dipesh Sahu will represent the BJP from the Bemetara constituency.
The state’s upcoming elections are scheduled to take place in two phases, on November 7 and November 17. Counting of votes for all 90 constituencies will be taken up on December 3. Within the 90-seat Chhattisgarh assembly, there are 29 seats set aside for members of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category, making up approximately 32 per cent of the state’s population.
Congress party, which secured 25 out of 29 ST-reserved seats in the 2018 assembly elections, is optimistic about winning a larger number of seats this time around. They are relying on the effectiveness of their government’s tribal welfare initiatives to achieve this.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has been contesting from his traditional Patan seat where BJP has fielded his distant nephew and the party MP Vijay Baghel while Deputy CM TS Singh Deo is in the fray from Ambikapur.
From BJP, state unit chief and MP Arun Sao are in the poll ring from Lormi, leader of opposition Narayan Chandel from Janjgir-Champa) and Union minister Renuka Singh from Bharatpur-Sonhat (ST) among others.A total of 294 candidates have filed their nomination papers for the first phase of voting till the October 20 deadline and the nominations of a total of 253 candidates have been found valid.The Model Code of Conduct has come into force with the announcement of poll dates. These elections are crucial as they are taking place months before the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April-May next year.