The contest in Tapkara, a scheduled tribe reserved constituency will be watched keenly by observers as the BJP veteran and leader of BJP in the Chhattisgarh assembly Nand Kumar Sai will be seeking re-election. Sai had won from Tapkara for tree times, the first being in 1977.
Apart from his image as a leader of the tribals Nand Kumar Sai has rose to great heights in his political career that includes being heading the BJP's Madhya Pradesh unit. Now, with the bifurcation of Chhattisgarh into a separate state Sai is among the few senior BJP leaders left in the new state.
What is surprising about Tapkara constituency is the fact that despite it being a tribal dominated constituency it has always voted against the Congress. Never has a Congress candidate been elected to the state assembly from here since 1967.