BJP releases fourth list with four candidates for Chhattisgarh polls, drops sitting MLA

The BJP on Wednesday released its fourth list of candidates for the remaining four seats for the upcoming Chhattisgarh assembly elections, denying ticket to a sitting MLA.

With this, the main opposition party has announced its candidates for all the 90 assembly constituencies in the state, which will see voting in two phases on November 7 and 17. Votes will be counted on December 3.

All four seats are of unreserved category for which the party has put up fresh faces.

Sitting MLA from Beltara seat Rajnish Singh has been denied a ticket, with the party going for 40-year-old Sushant Shukla, from there.

Shukla, a former member of the state youth commission, is co-incharge of the state Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the BJP’s youth wing.

In the high-profile Ambikapur seat, the party has fielded Rajesh Agrawal, a member of its Surguja district executive committee. Deputy Chief Minister and incumbent MLA TS Singh Deo is the Congress nominee from Ambikapur.

Agrawal, a businessman, had joined the BJP after quitting Congress ahead of the 2018 assembly elections. The two other candidates, Dhaniram Dhiwar (Kasdol seat) and Dipesh Sahu (Bemetara), are also fresh faces.

Of the 90 candidates from BJP, 33 are from OBC (Other Backward Class), 30 from Scheduled Tribe (ST), 10 from Scheduled Caste (SC), state BJP media joint in-charge Anurag Agrawal said.

The party has denied tickets to two of the 13 incumbent MLAs this time.

The ruling Congress has also announced candidates for all 90 seats.

The Congress registered a landslide victory in the 2018 polls winning 68 seats, and comfortably formed the government. The BJP was reduced to 15 seats, while the JCC (J) and the BSP bagged 5 and 2 seats, respectively. The current strength of the Congress is 71.

The Congress has set a target of winning 75 seats this time, according to party leaders.