Raipur, October 11
The central election committee (CEC) of Congress on Friday released first list of 17 candidates for 90-member assembly elections in Chhattisgarh to be held in two phases on November 11 and 19.
The CEC has featured eight new faces in its first list while one sitting legislator from Mohla Manpur Shivraj Singh Usare has been dropped. Usare has been replaced by Tej Kunwar Netam.
As anticipated, kin of party leaders, who got killed on May 25-naxal attack, will be fielded from Kharsia, Dantewada and Rajnandgaon. The party hopes to win all the three seats with sympathy wave in its favour.
In Kharsia, which is the Congress bastion, former PCC chief Nandkumar Patel’s son Umesh will be in fray. In naxal-infested Dantewada constituency, former leader of the opposition in state assembly Mahendra Karma’s spouse Devti will contest. The most interesting battle between the ruling BJP and Congress will be in Rajnandgaon constituency from where the latter will field Alka Mudliyar – spouse of former MLA Uday Mudliyar against CM Raman Singh.
The name of rebel leader Manoj Mandavi, who has recently joined Congress again, too has been included in the first list. Mandavi had rebelled in 2008 elections and contested from Bhanupratappur, but lost by 15479 votes to BJP candidate Bramhanand. He will fight from the same constituency again, this time with Congress ticket.
Reacting on first list of poll candidates, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) spokesperson Mahendra Chhabda said tickets were given to those candidates who worked for the party at grassroot level in last five years.
Another PCC spokesperson Ghanshyam Raju Tiwari said the candidate-selection criteria were based on party’s national vice president Rahul Gandhi’s formula.
The sitting MLA from naxal-hit Konta assembly Kawasi Lakhma, who was the sole Congress winner from Bastar division in 2008 polls, said the party would surely get benefitted by sympathy wave in wake of May 25-Maoist incident. Lakhma was eye-witness of the incident as the Maoists had released him and killed Nandkumar Patel and his elder son.
The 17 candidates whose names appear in first list are - Tej Kunwar Netam - Mohla Manpur, Umesh Patel - Kharsia, Alka Mudliyar - Rajnandgaon, Shankar Dhruva - Kanker, Devti Karma - Dantewada, Daleshwar Sahu - Dongargaon, Lakheswar Baghel - Bastar, Sant Ram Netam - Keshkal, Chandan Kashyap - Narayanpur, Shyamu Kashyap - Narayanpur, Kawsi Lakma - Narayanpur, Girwal Janghel - Khairagarh , Mantu Ram Pawar - Antagarh, Mohan Markam - Antagarh, Deepak Baij - Antagarh, Vikram Mandavi – Bijapur and Manoj Mandavi – Bhanupratappur.
No comments:
Post a Comment