The Congress in Chhattisgarh has pinned its hopes on experienced leaders for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as its first list of six candidates included former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, two former State Ministers and a sitting MP. The party released its first list of 39 candidates nationwide on March 8.
In Chhattisgarh, where it lost power to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last year's Assembly polls, the Congress announced candidates for six out of 11 Lok Sabha seats. Four of them are from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and one belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
Besides Mr. Baghel (Rajnandgaon seat), the Congress has fielded Vikas Upadhyay (Raipur), Tamradhwaj Sahu (Mahasamund), Shivkumar Dahariya (Janjgir-Champa), Jyotsana Mahant (Korba), and Rajendra Sahu (Durg).