In its first list, the BJP has announced the candidates for five of the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in Chhattisgarh.
The candidates announced are for all five reserved Lok Sabha seats, including four schedule tribe (ST) seats - Sarguja, Bastar, Raigarh and Kanker and one Janjgir-Champa which is allocated for Scheduled Caste (SC).
From Sarguja, the BJP has nominated from Premnagar assembly MLA Renuka Singh, while Gomtee Sai, the president of Jashpur district panchayat, will contest from Raigarh seat.
Denying a ticket to the incumbent Kanker MP and the party’s Chhattisgarh chief Vikram Usendi, the BJP opted to field Mohan Mandavi, who is also an office bearer in the Zila Panchayat Kanker.
On the other hand, on the reserved SC seat Jangir-Champa, the BJP has fielded former MP and senior party leader from Sarangarh constituency Guharam Ajgale. Ajgale has a strong hold in the northern plains of Chhattisgarh.
From the Bastar constituency, the BJP has fielded Baiduram Kashyap, a two-time MLA president of district unit of Jagadalpur.
Read more| BJP releases list of 184 candidates for Lok Sabha elections. Full list here
“It was a strategic decision to replace the candidates. The fresh candidates will definitely win their constituencies for the party. We are winning all the 11 seats of Chhattisgarh now,” said BJP spokesperson and senior leader of Sacchinand Upasane.
{{/usCountry}}“It was a strategic decision to replace the candidates. The fresh candidates will definitely win their constituencies for the party. We are winning all the 11 seats of Chhattisgarh now,” said BJP spokesperson and senior leader of Sacchinand Upasane.
{{/usCountry}}Both Congress and BJP are yet to announce their candidates for the remaining six general Lok Sabha constituencies - Raipur, Durg, Korba, Mahsamund, Rajnandgaon and Bilaspur.
The BJP on Tuesday announced that it will drop all 10 of its incumbent MPs from Chhattisgarh and replace them with new faces in the Lok Sabha polls, a decision that comes in the wake of the party’s drubbing in the recent assembly elections.
In the 2014 general elections, the BJP had won 10 out of 11 seats in the state with Congress’s Tamradhwaj Sahu, who holds the portfolio of home minister in Chhattisgarh, being the only won to win a Lok Sabha seat from Durg defeating BJP’s Saroj Pandey.