Chhattisgarh: Congress names Yashoda Verma as candidate for Khairagarh bypoll

The polling will be held in Khairagarh assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh on April 12 and counting of votes will take place on April 16.

RAIPUR: The ruling Congress has named Yashoda Verma as the candidate for the April 12 bypoll in Khairagarh assembly seat which fell vacant after the death of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) MLA Devvrat Singh.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved Yashoda Verma’s name as the party’s candidate for the Khairagarh bypoll in Chhattisgarh. (File)

Congress president Sonia Gandhi approved Verma’s name for the Khairagarh bypoll. She is currently president of Khairagarh block Congress committee and hails from Lodhi community.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the JCC (J) are yet to announce their candidates for the Khairagarh assembly poll.

Talking to media persons, Verma expressed gratitude to the party leadership for nominating her and exuded confidence about winning the by-election. The polling will be held on April 12 and counting of votes will take place on April 16.

Devvrat Singh, who represented Khairagarh assembly segment four times, died on November 4 last year after a cardiac arrest. Singh was first elected as a legislator in 1995 on a Congress ticket.

In December 2017, he quit the Congress and next year joined former chief minister Late Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J). Singh contested the last assembly election (2018) on a JCC (J) ticket and became MLA for the fourth time from Khairagarh.

In 2018, the Congress registered a landslide victory in the state, winning 68 seats out of 90 while the BJP won 15. The JCC (J) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) contested the poll in coalition and bagged 5 and 2 seats, respectively.