The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 29 candidates from the other backward class (OBC) communities for the upcoming assembly elections in Chhattsigarh and people familiar with the matter said that the number could reach 32 as the party is yet to announce candidates for five more seats in the 90-member assembly.
Till Wednesday, the BJP has declared 85 candidates.The party is yet to announce candidates for Ambikapur, Beltara, Kasdol, Bemetara and Pandariya (all general seats).
In the previous assembly election in 2018, the BJP fielded 28 OBC candidates while the Congress gave tickets to 26. Chhattisgarh has around 40-45 percent OBCs who are mainly found in central plains.
The BJP’s first list was declared on August 17 while the second was released on Monday.
The Congress list is expected to arrive next week.
For the 2023 assembly election, the BJP till now has given tickets to 16 upper caste candidates-- including seven Thakurs, five Brahmins, three Agrawals and one Jain.
Of the 85 seats for which nominees were announced by the BJP till now, 29 are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 10 for the Sheduled Castes (SC).
The party has also given tickets to two former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers-- OP Choudhary and Neelkanth Tekam-- and three doctors-- KrishnaMurti Bandhi, Khilwan Sahu and Dinesh Lal Jangde.
{{/usCountry}}The party has also given tickets to two former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers-- OP Choudhary and Neelkanth Tekam-- and three doctors-- KrishnaMurti Bandhi, Khilwan Sahu and Dinesh Lal Jangde.
{{/usCountry}}The highest number of tickets in OBC category were given to Sahus (10 candidates), followed by Kurmi (8), Rajwar (2), Yadav (2), Kalaar (2) and others.
In the previous 2018 election, the BJP gave 14 tickets to the Sahu candidates and this time out of the 85 seats declared, BJP has given ticket to 10 Sahus.
“We are focusing on OBC voters since in the last election, a big chunk of OBC voters voted for the Congress. This time, they are inclined toward us,” said a BJP leader.
Although there are 29 reserved seats for STs, the BJP has given tickets to 30 ST candidates including one on general seat—Premnagar constituency.
The Gond tribe candidates have been given highest 18 tickets followed by Kanwar (4), Rathiya Kanwar (2), Bhatra (2), Halba (2), Christian Oraon (2) and Hindu Oraon ( 1)
Till now the BJP has not given a single ticket to any Sikh, Sindhi, Punjabi, Gujrati or Muslim candidates.
Out of the three Agrawals, who were given tickets, Amar Agrawal and Brijmohan Agrawal had been ministers in the BJP government for 15 years.
Amar lost the Bilaspur seat to Congress’s Shailesh Pandey in 2018, but Brijmohan managed to retain his Raipur South seat, although there was a decline in winning margin as compared to his previous election results.
Third among the Agrawals is Sampat Agrawal who got the ticket from Basna who fought the 2018 election independently and joined the BJP just a few months ago.
Actor-turned politician Anuj Sharma has been given ticket from Dharsiwa seat, which had been represented by Devji Bhai Patel since 2003. Patel, a Gujarati, lost to Anita Yogendra Sharma in 2018. The local party cadres are unhappy over the denial of ticket to Patel and and they have burnt Sharma’s effigy to show their resistance.
The other upper caste candidates include former chief minister Raman Singh, his nephew Vikrant Singh, former ministers Prem Prakash Pandey and Rajesh Munat, Vijay Sharma and Purandar Mishra.
Former minister Dilip Singh Judeo’s youngest son, Prabal Pratap Singh Judeo, and daughter-in-law Sanyogita Judeo have been given party tickets from Kota and Chandrapur seats, respectively.
It will be Prabal Pratap’s first election, and Sanyogita’s second fight, as she lost to Ramkumar Yadav in 2018.
The assembly elections in Chhattisgarh are scheduled to be held on November 7 and 17.