The ruling Congress declared its first list of 30 candidates for the Chhattisgarh Assembly election on October 15. All ten Ministers — as well as Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, his deputy T.S. Singh Deo, and Assembly speaker Charan Das Mahant — have been retained, while eight sitting MLAs have been dropped.
Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) president Deepak Baij, currently the Lok Sabha MP from Bastar, will now be fielded in the Chitrakot Assembly seat. He had won the seat in the 2018 State election, but then vacated it a year later after winning the parliamentary seat. Former CPCC chief Mohan Markam has also retained his seat of Kondagaon in the tribal belt of Bastar that goes to polls in the first phase on November 7.
The decision to retain all Cabinet Ministers despite adverse reports against a couple of them is an attempt to show that that this list has Mr. Baghel’s imprint and contain any major rebellion, party sources said. Despite this, at least one Minister, Guru Rudra Kumar, will have his constituency changed.
The remaining Ministers and senior leaders will contest from the same seats they won in 2018, when the Congress snagged 68 seats in the 90-member House.
Surveyed on winnability
Of the eight MLAs who have been dropped, most were first-timers and found to be on a sticky wicket; party sources said that winnability was the major factor, and was determined through multiple surveys.
Some sitting MLAs lost out due to poor performance despite winning with a huge margin in the last election. For example, former IAS officer Shishupal Shori had won the Kanker seat by a margin of 14.7% in 2018, riding on a pro-Congress wave, but has now lost his ticket to former MLA Shankar Dhruv, who will return to the electoral fray this year.
MLAs Mamta Chandrakar from Pandariya and Chhanni Chandu Sahu from Khujji have been replaced by Neelkanth Chandrawanshi and Bhola Ram Sahu respectively. Ms. Sahu, who had won by a decent margin in 2018, is said to have missed out this time because she rubbed Mr. Baghel and the party’s State leadership the wrong way through her actions and statements.
First-time candidates
In Dantewada, Devati Karma — the widow of the late Bastar stalwart Mahendra Karma, who was killed in a Maoist ambush that wiped out much of the Congress’ top brass in the State in 2013 — has been replaced by her son Chavindra Mahendra Karma. Ms. Karma had won the seat in a by-election necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi who was killed in a Naxal attack in 2019.
Mr. Baghel’s close associate Girish Dewangan will be contesting for the first time from the Rajnandgaon seat, where the BJP has fielded sitting MLA and three-time former CM Raman Singh. While this is Mr. Dewangan’s first foray into electoral politics, he has been associated with the Congress for nearly four decades and is currently a CPCC general secretary. As chairman of the Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation, his name has cropped up in the Enforcement Directorate’s probe into the alleged coal levy scam.
The Congress’ first list includes four women. It has named 14 candidates for Scheduled Tribe seats and three for Scheduled Caste seats. Of the 13 general seats, nine candidates are from other backward classes (OBCs) — including three Sahus — and one is a Muslim.
