Chhattisgarh election: Congress drops 10 MLAs in second list
The Congress on Wednesday denied tickets to 10 sitting lawmakers in its second list of 53 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh.
The Congress on Wednesday denied tickets to 10 sitting lawmakers in its second list of 53 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, in an apparent bid to blunt anti-incumbency against local leaders and retain power in the heartland state.
With this, the state’s ruling party has announced candidates for 83 of the 90 assembly seats and dropped 18 incumbent legislators in all.
The Congress is looking to retain power in the two-phase elections scheduled for November 7 and 17. HT had reported on October 5 that the Congress is likely to deny tickets to 18-20 sitting MLAs, citing their poor performance in internal surveys.
In a statement, state Congress chief Deepak Baij said all the candidates who were given the ticket in this list are capable of winning the elections. “The candidates list is well balanced and with this list, we are winning 75 seats out of 90,” he said.
Prominent among those dropped were Premsai Singh Tekam, Vinay Jaiswal and Rekhchand Jain.
Of the 53 seats, 14 are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and six for Scheduled Caste (SC) categories. Ten women were part of the second list of the party, which released its first list of 30 candidates on October 15.
Out of the 33 general seats where candidates were declared on Wednesday, the party nominated 17 leaders from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), taking the total number of picks from the backward communities to 27. In 2018, the Congress gave tickets to a total of 28 OBCs.
Chhattisgarh is one of only four states where the Congress is in power on its own. The party ended 15 years of Bharatiya Janata Party rule in 2018 with a landslide victory of 68 seats.
Till now, the party has named 28 tribal candidates, including three from general seats – Khel Sai Singh (Prem Nagar), Purushottam Kawar (Katghora) and Devendra Bahadur Singh (Basana). Nine SC candidates have also been named so far.
In Manendragarh, the Congress denied a ticket to one-time MLA Vinay Jaiswal and fielded Ramesh Singh instead. In ST-reserved Pratappur, former state minister and five-time lawmaker Premsai Singh Tekam was dropped in favour of Rajkumari Marawi.
In another tribal-dominated seat, Ramanujganj, controversial MLA Brihaspat Singh considered close to chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was denied a ticket.
In July 2021, deputy chief minister TS Singhdeo had walked out of the assembly, in the presence of Baghel, over allegations that the former was involved in an attack on Brihaspat Singh. Singh alleged his convoy was attacked in Surguja district at the behest of Singhdeo.
The party fielded Ambikapur mayor Ajay Tirkey against one of the BJP’s tallest tribal faces, former MP Ramvichar Netam.
Veteran Congress leader and sitting lawmaker from Raipur Gramin, Satyanarayan Sharma’s son Pankaj Sharma, got the ticket from the same seat.
The party dropped Chandradev Rai, the incumbent from Bilaigarh, and preferred Kavita Pran Lahre. Rai was raided by Enforcement Directorate (ED) February in an alleged coal levy scam.
“The second list of Congress shows that camp war within the party has affected decisions on many seats. However, the party has also tried to balance it by focusing on the winnability factor and survey inputs,” said a Congress leader on the condition of anonymity.
He further said that Singhdeo played a pivotal role in ticket distribution in some seats.
“The denial of ticket to Brihaspat Singh who openly spoke against deputy CM TS Singhdeo clearly shows that the will of Singhdeo has prevailed in decision making on tickets. Singhdeo had publicly revealed his anger against Singh…Further denial of tickets to sitting MLA Vinay Jaiswal of Manendragarh and Chintamani Maharaj also shows that Singhdeo camp played an important role in ticket distribution,” the Congress leader quoted above said.
Political commentators said the Congress tried to balance its second list.
“The party tried to balance their list with eight castes of OBC who were given tickets in this list. On ST seats also, seven different tribal communities are being fielded by the party. On SC seats, both Satnami and Suryvanshi have been accommodated,” said political commentator Sudiep Shrivastva.
The BJP has released the candidates for 86 seats so far.
BJP spokesperson Sacchinand Upasane said the Congress’s list reflected the infighting in the ruling party. “The BJP is winning the elections and now the list makes it more clear that we are forming the government,” he said.