The Congress’ first of six Lok Sabha candidates for Chhattisgarh includes two ex-ministers, and a sitting MP, apart from former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
While it announced the candidatures of Bhupesh Baghel (Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha), Vikas Upadhyay (Raipur), Tamradhwaj Sahu (Mahasamund), Rajendra Sahu (Durg), Jyotsna Mahant (Korba) and Shiv Dahariya (Janjgir-Champa-SC), it is yet to announce the remaining five, that includes the Bastar seat which is currently being represented by its State president Deepak Baij.
Mr. Baij lost the last Assembly polls as did former ministers Mr. Tamradhwaj Sahu and Mr. Dahariya. The party – whose best ever Lok Sabha tally since the formation of the State is two out of 11 it registered in 2019 – hopes to improve its tally. The ruling BJP has already announced all its 11 candidates. In five of these six seats, a different candidate had contested in the last general elections.
The match ups
Mr. Baghel will take on BJP’s Santosh Pandey from Rajnandgaon. Party sources in the State said that by fielding the former CM outside his home district of Durg they wanted to signal that the party was not shying away from fielding strong candidates. In the case of Durg and Mahasamund, the Sahu factor was a nudge for the party to zero in on its picks. Similarly, it has fielded its most prominent SC face from Janjgir-Champa a reserved constituency. The party had done relatively well in the Assembly segments of this constituency in the 2023 Assembly polls despite its overall loss.
In Raipur, the relatively inexperienced ex MLA Vikas Upadhyay will take on BJP veteran and State minister Brijmohan Agrawal. This will be the first Lok Sabha election for the two, but Mr. Upadhyay has been MLA only once compared to Mr. Agrawal who has been an MLA for eight terms. The party, however, feels it has banked on youth to do the trick here.
Korba will see a high-profile contest between Ms. Mahant and senior BJP leader Saroj Pandey.
