In poll-bound Chhattisgarh, Congress is contemplating fielding those candidates who had lost the 2013 assembly elections as reported by The Sunday Guardian. As per the report, not all sitting MLAs from Congress may get the ticket as the party is looking at only winnability as the sole criteria for selecting candidates. Betting on the anti-incumbency in the state where the BJP has won the election in the past three terms, Congress is hopeful of getting more seats especially since the loss margin was 1% last time.
Congress is yet to form up an alliance and the announcement of an alliance between former Congress leader Ajit Jogi-led Janata Congress Chhattisgarh and Mayawati’s BSP has put Congress in a fix. While BSP is to contest of 35 seats Jogi’s party will contest on 55 seats. In 2013, BSP had fought on all 90 seats but one just one seat with total vote share at 4.27%.
BJP, too, is upping its ante in the state. On Friday, BJP President Amit Shah targeted the Congress in Chhattisgarh over the alleged involvement of Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel in circulating a ‘sex CD’ purportedly featuring a state minister.
Yesterday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced dates for elections in the five poll-bound states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. The elections to the Chhattisgarh legislative assembly will be held in two phases, in the first stage, elections will be held in 18 assembly constituencies on November 12. In the second phase, the election in 72 constituencies will be held on November 20 and the results will be announced on 11th December in all five states.ma
