RAIPUR: The ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh has reposed faith in all 12 members of the Bhupesh Baghel ministry, but dropped eight legislators and replaced them with new faces in its first list of 30 candidates announced on the first day of Navratri.
The Congress has also roped in state party president Deepak Baij, who is the Lok Sabha MP from Bastar, in an effort to retain power in next month's assembly elections. The first phase of voting is on November 7, barely three weeks from now.
Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel will seek re-election from his traditional Patan constituency in Durg district, and deputy chief minister T S Singhdeo has been fielded from Ambikapur, which he has won thrice in a row.
Fourteen of the 30 seats announced on Sunday are ST-reserved constituencies and three are SC-reserved. OBC candidates dominate on the unreserved seats - nine of 14 - and there are four women candidates among the 30. Strangely, the Congress is yet to name a candidate for Jagdalpur constituency, which is among the 20 going to the polls in round-1. Rekhchand Jain had won this seat in 2018 by around 27,000 votes. Baij, who became president of the state Congress a couple of months ago, has been fielded in Chitrakot (ST) seat in insurgency-hit Bastar region. The Congress has benched sitting MLA Rajman Venjam, who was elected to the assembly in a bypoll after Baij quit the seat following his election to the Lok Sabha in 2019. BJP has fielded four MPs, with five seats yet to be declared.
Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha Speaker Dr Charandas Mahant, a senior Congress leader and former Union minister, is seeking re-election from Sakti constituency while deputy Speaker Santram Netam will also seek re-election from his sitting Keshkal constituency.
Congress has thrown up a challenge to former CM and BJP vice-president Raman Singh by fielding Girish Dewangan, chairman of Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation, from Singh's bastion of Rajnandgaon.
All the ministers in the Baghel ministry have been nominated to contest the assembly elections from their respective constituencies, except for Rudra Kumar, who has been shifted to Navagarh (SC) seat from his present constituency of Ahiwara (SC). Other ministers contesting the assembly elections are Moham Markam (Kondagaon-ST), Amarjeet Singh Bhagat (Sitapur-ST), Umesh Patel (Kharasia), Jai Singh Agrawal (Korba), Dr Shiv Kumar Deharia (Aarang-SC), Anila Bhedia (Dondo Lohara-ST), Tamradhwaj Sahu (Durg-Rural), Ravindra Choubey (Sajja), Mohammad Akbar (Kawardha) and Kawasi Lakma (Konta-ST).
Congress benches 8 MLAs, bets on new faces for win Eight legislators have been replaced with new candidates, mainly based on a perception within the party that there is local-level anti-incumbency against nearly two dozen MLAs. They include Dantewada where Devati Karma, wife of slain former leader of the opposition Mahendra Karma, has been replaced with her son Chavindra Mahendra Karma. The Congress has kept the change within the family. Mahendra Karma was among the frontline Congress leaders who were killed in the Jhiram Ghati Maoist massacre of May 2013.
The Congress has also denied the ticket to Sishupal Sori from Kanker (ST), replacing him with a fresh face, Shankar Dhurv. Gurudayal Banjare, representing Navagarh (SC), has been dropped from the list and replaced with minister Guru Rudra Kumar. Harshita Swami Baghel has been fielded from Dongergarh (SC) where the party has denied ticket to sitting MLA Bhubneshwar Shobaram Baghel.
MLA Mamta Chandrakar has been denied the ticket from Pandariya, where the party has fielded a new face, Neelkanth Chandravanshi. Another woman legislator, Channi Sahu, has been replaced by Bhola Ram Sahu in Khujji. In tribal Bastar, sitting legislator Anoop Nag has been denied the ticket in Antagarh-ST constituency and Roop Singh Potai has been fielded instead.
The Congress's first lineup shows that the party chose not to disturb any leaders, who held important positions and remained powerful in the five years since Congress came to power in December 2018, uprooting the 15-year-old BJP regime.
Other sitting MLAs who have been fielded to seek re-election include Vikram Mandavi (Bijapur-ST), Lakheshwar Baghel (Bastar-ST), Chandan Kashyap (Narayanpur-ST), Savitri Mandavi (Bhanupratappur-ST), Indrashah Mandavi (Manpur-Mohala), Daleshwar Sahu (Dongergaon) and Yashoda Verma (Khairagrah).
Congress is expected to release the remaining 60 names soon as nomination for the first phase of elections on November 7 has already started and the last date for nomination for the second phase is October 30.
Dropping eight of 30 MLAs (26%) in the very first list indicates that Congress will clinically decide on the next 60 names. More names are expected to be dropped, but Congress believes it can manage resentment by the dropped members as it feels the mood is in favour of the party.TNN
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