Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections 2023: Here's The Full List of BJP Candidates

The BJP on Wednesday released its fourth list of candidates for the remaining four seats for the upcoming Chhattisgarh assembly elections.

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.

The two other candidates, Dhaniram Dhiwar (Kasdol seat) and Dipesh Sahu (Bemetara), are also fresh faces.

In the third list, the party nominated Bhawna Bohra for the Pandariya seat in Kabirdham district.

Former chief minister Raman Singh will be contesting from his traditional Rajnandgaon seat, while Leader of Opposition in the assembly Narayan Prasad Chandel has been renominated from his current seat Janjir-Champa.

Popular Chhattisgarhi filmstar Anuj Sharma, who recently joined the BJP, has been fielded from Dharsiwa in Raipur district. The party has also fielded Ishwar Sahu from Saja seat in the Bemetara district.

State BJP president and Bilaspur Member of Parliament Arun Sao has been fielded from Lormi, Surguja MP and Union minister of State for Tribal Affairs Renuka Singh from Bharatpur-Sonhat (ST reserved) and Raigarh Lok Sabha member Gomti Sai from Pathalgaon (ST).

BJP candidates who lost in 2018, but in whom the party has reposed faith this time also are Shyam Bihari Jaiswal (Manendragarh), Bhaiyyalal Rajwade (Baikunthpur), Ramdayal Uikey (Pali-Tanakhar-ST), Kedar Kashyap (Narayanpur-ST), Mahesh Gagda (Bijapur-ST), Prem Prakash Pandey (Bhilai Nagar), Dayaldas Baghel (Navagarh-SC), Rajesh Munat (Raipur West), Vikram Usendi (Antagarh-ST), Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur) and Sanyogita Singh Judev (Chandrapur).

Former IAS officer OP Chaudhary, who lost the previous elections from Kharsia, has been fielded from adjoining Raigarh, while Sampat Agrawal, who unsuccessfully contested as an independent candidate five years ago, is the BJP nominee from Basna.

Durg MP Vijay Baghel will contest from Patan, the assembly constituency of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

Former Chhattisgarh minister Ramvihcar Netam would contest from Ramanujganj (ST) seat where he had suffered defeat in 2013 against incumbent Congress MLA Brihaspat Singh. Both Vijay Baghel and Netam did not contest the 2018 assembly elections.

BJP spokesperson Devlal Halwa Thakur would contest from Daundi Lohara (ST) seat while former MLAs Sanjeev Shah, Shravan Markam and Lakhanlal Dewangan would contest from Mohla-Manpur (ST), Sihawa (ST) and Korba seats, respectively.

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

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.

(With PTI inputs)