5-STATE ELECTION: Congress releases 2nd Chhattisgarh list, drops 10 MLAs

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, October 18

The Congress on Wednesday released its second list of 53 candidates for the Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, fielding party veteran late Motilal Vora’s son Arun Vora from Durg City.

With the second list, the total number of candidates declared by the Congress went up to 83. The party fielded sitting MLA Vikas Upadhyay from the Raipur City West seat, Pankaj Sharma from Raipur Rural and Mahant Ram Sundar Das from the Raipur City South constituency.

Jitin Jaiswal will contest from Jagdalpur and Shailesh Pandey from Bilaspur. Sitting MLA Arun Vora has been renominated from Durg City. His father Motilal Vora was CM of united Madhya Pradesh.

Former Rajya Sabha member Chhaya Verma has been fielded from Dharsiwa instead of sitting MLA Anita Yogendra. Yogendra is among 10 sitting MLAs who have been denied ticket in the second list.

In the Manendragarh constituency, the Congress has denied tickets to Vinay Jaiswal and has fielded Ramesh Singh. Similarly, in the Pratappur (ST) seat, former minister Premsai Singh Tekam, a five-time MLA, has been denied the ticket and the party instead fielded Rajkumari Marawi.

The Congress dropped eight sitting MLAs in the first list announced on Sunday. The list contained 30 names, including that of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel from his citadel Patan and Deputy Chief Minister TS Singh Deo from Ambikapur.

The Congress reportedly took the decision to drop sitting MLAs after party’s internal surveys found out that they were on a sticky wicket. Of the 53 seats for which candidates were announced by the Congress today, 14 are reserved for STs, six for SCs and the remaining 33 are for the general category.