Lost in VS battle, Cong bigwigs now eye LS ticket

Raipur, December 13

Losing an election battle is always frustrating, but seasoned politicians cope with such embarrassing situations in a jiffy and start preparing for fresh democratic encounter. The Congress bigwigs in Chhattisgarh, who have tasted bitter pills in recently concluded assembly polls, too are au fait with this art and hence aiming to have a rendezvous with voters again by obtaining Lok Sabha ticket from party high command on the basis of their impressive victory records in the past.

At present, Congress has one out of 11 Lok Sabha seats in State. Korba, the sole seat, is held by union minister of state and PCC president Charandas Mahant who is set to contest from same constituency again.

For remaining ten seats, the party is hunting faces that may prove perception of political pundits and psephologists about Congress wrong in ensuing general elections.

Since state and central elections are fought on different issues and voters keep changing their mindset about political parties frequently, Congress will not hesitate in reconsidering the leaders who somehow missed the victory bus.

Knowing this fact, former leader of opposition Ravindra Choubey, ex-MLAs Mohammad Akbar and Dharmjeet Singh, Raipur mayor Kiranmayi Nayak, Bilaspur mayor Vani Rao and few others are planning to offer their candidature for Lok Sabha polls to the party’s national leadership.

After winning six consecutive assembly polls from Saja, Ravindra Choubey lost this time. Saja comes under Durg Lok Sabha area. In 2009, the party had given ticket to his elder brother Pradeep Choubey who was trounced by BJP’s Saroj Pandey. Since Pradeep Choubey has lost two LS battles from Durg, Ravindra Choubey is likely to stake a claim to the seat for 2014.

Mohammad Akbar, a three-time MLA, wants to try his luck either from Raipur or Rajnandgoan LS areas. Akbar had won Vidhan Sabha elections twice from Virendra Nagar and once from Pandaria. This time, he was the only candidate whose seat was changed on request. He contested from Kawardha, CM Raman Singh’s hometown, but was destined to lose. He now aims to represent parliament as a Muslim face of State Congress.

Raipur mayor Kiranmayi Nayak too is aspiring to contest from Raipur LS seat. She lost November polls to BJP minister Brijmohan Agrawal from Raipur City South. In 2009, Congress had fielded Bhupesh Baghel from Raipur LS seat but he could not put break on winning streak of BJP’s Ramesh Bais. However, Baghel won recent polls from Patan assembly seat and the party is in search of new face.

For Bilaspur LS ticket, there are host of aspirants including Ajit Jogi, Dharamjeet Singh and local mayor Vani Rao. Since Ajit Jogi did not contest assembly polls, he will be first choice for the seat. Last time, his spouse Dr Renu had lost the battle to BJP’s Dilip Singh Judeo who died a couple of months back. The seat is vacant since then.

If Jogi will opt for Mahasamund LS constituency, where he had defeated the then BJP candidate Vidya Charan Shukla in 2004, the party may consider Dharamjeet Singh or Vani Rao from Bilaspur.