Congress releases second list of 53 candidates for Chhattisgarh polls

Of the 53 seats, 14 are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST), six for Scheduled Caste (SC) categories and the remaining 33 are general seats. Ten women candidates have been given tickets in the second list

The Congress on Wednesday released its second list of 53 candidates for the Chhattisgarh assembly election.

In its second list, the Congress has denied tickets to 10 sitting MLAs (Representative Photo)

In its second list the party has denied tickets to 10 sitting MLAs. Of the 83 seats declared till now, a total of 18 sitting MLAs have been named.

The first list was released on October 15, in which the named eight sitting MLAs were dropped. The party is yet to declare the candidates for the remaining seven seats.

HT on October 5 reported that the Congress is likely to deny tickets to 18-20 sitting MLAs in upcoming elections, citing their poor performance in the surveys conducted to gauge the winning probability of the candidates.

Of the 53 seats, 14 are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST), six for Scheduled Caste (SC) categories and the remaining 33 are general seats. Ten women candidates have been given tickets in the second list.

On general seats, the party has given 17 tickets to Other Backward Classes (OBC) candidates. The Congress has fielded 27 OBC candidates till now and three tribal candidates on general seats– Khel Sai Singh from Premnagar, Purushottam Kawar from Katghora and Devendra Bahadur Singh from Basna.

The seven seats which are yet to be declared are– Saraipali (SC), Mahasamund, Kasdol, Raipur North, Sihawa (ST) and Dhamtari.

In the Manendragarh constituency, the Congress has denied tickets to Dr Vinay Jaiswal’s ticket and has fielded Ramesh Singh. Similarly, in the Pratappur (ST) seat, former minister Premsai Singh Tekam, who was five times MLA, was denied a ticket and the party instead fielded Rajkumari Marawi.

In the Ramanujganj (ST) seat, controversial MLA Brihaspati Singh has been denied the ticket and the party has chosen to field Ambikapur Mayor Ajay Tirkey against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prominent tribal face and former MP Ramvichar Netam.

Veteran Congress leader and sitting MLA from Raipur Gramin seat Satyanarayan Sharma’s son Pankaj Sharma has got the ticket from the same seat.

Chandradev Rai sitting MLA from Bilaigarh (SC) has been denied the ticket this time and the party has fielded Kavita Pran Lahre.

Rai was raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged coal levy scam.

Further, the Congress has fielded Arun Vora, son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Motilal Vora, from Durg City and Chhaya Verma, a former member of the Rajya Sabha, has been fielded from Dharsiwa seat.

Sitting MLA Vikas Upadhyay has been fielded from the Raipur City (West) while Pankaj Sharma from Raipur (Rural) and Mahant Ram Sundar Das from the Raipur City (South) constituency.

Congress insiders believe that the second list reflects the camp war within the party.

“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 surveys. A total of 10 sitting MLAs have been denied tickets which reflects that Congress is trying to counter the anger of sitting MLAs by denying them tickets,” said a Congress leader.

He further said that in some assemblies deputy chief minister TS Singhdeo played a pivotal role in ticket distribution.

“The denial of ticket to Ramanujganj MLA Brihaspat Singh, who openly spoke against Singhdeo, clearly shows that the will of Singhdeo has prevailed in decision making on tickets. Singhdeo had publicly revealed his anger against Singh. Further, the denial of tickets to sitting MLA Vinay Jaiswal of Manendragarh and Chintamani Maharaj also shows that Singhdeo camp has decided on major tickets in the north. Lastly, dropping Jagdalpur MLA Rekchand Jain and fielding Jatin Jaiswal – a TS Singhdeo loyalist, also shows that his camp has been decisive this time,” added the Congress leader, who did not wish to be named.

Political commentators believe that Congress tried to balance the second list.

“The party tried to balance their list with eight castes of OBC who were given tickets in this list. On ST seats, seven different tribal communities are being fielded. On SC seats, both Satnami and Suryvanshi have been accommodated and I believe Gaanda may also be nominated from Saraipali. In upper caste– Brahman, Thakur, Vaishya, Kayasth, and Punjabis have been strategically accommodated,” said Sudiep Shrivastava, a political analyst, adding that one Muslim and two Christians have found a place in the list and one Sikh may also get a ticket from Raipur (North).

BJP spokesperson Sacchinand Upasane said that the list by the Congress reflects the infighting between the party.

“This list shows the infighting between two important leaders of Congress. The BJP is winning the election and now the list makes it more clear that we are forming the government,” said Upasane.

Elections to the 90-member assembly will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17. While polling for 20 seats will be held in the first phase, the second phase will see voting in the remaining 70 constituencies. Results will be announced on December 3.