BJP bets big on Chhatisgarh, pits CM Baghel's nephew Vijay against him

In the 2008 assembly elections, Vijay Baghel defeated Bhupesh Baghel in this seat. In 2013, in a reverse trend, Bhupesh Baghel defeated Vijay Baghel.

Raipur:The BJP announced the names of candidates for 21 seats in Chhattisgarh which goes to polls later this year. Chhattisgarh assembly elections were one of the focuses of the poll meeting of the BJP Central Election Committee on Wednesday in Delhi. PM Modi, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and members of the Central Election Committee were present at the meeting.

In the first list released by BJP, candidates have been announced for 10 Scheduled Tribes, one Scheduled Caste and 10 general seats. Expressing confidence in Vijay Baghel, the party has declared the candidate from the high-profile Patan, the constituency of CM Baghel. Vijay Baghel is his nephew. If CM Baghel contests from here, then an interesting duel will be seen between uncle and nephew.

Durg MP Vijay Baghel has already expressed his desire to contest from Patan on several forums. In the 2008 assembly elections, Vijay Baghel defeated Bhupesh Baghel in this seat. In 2013, in a reverse trend, Bhupesh Baghel defeated Vijay Baghel. After this, the BJP did not offer tickets to Vijay Baghel in the 2018 assembly elections. In the subsequent Lok Sabha elections, Vijay Baghel contested from the Durg seat and became a Member of Parliament by defeating Pratima Chandrakar of Congress. This time around, the party kept faith in Vijay.

Five women were also included in the first list of BJP. They are Alka Chandrakar from Khallari, Lakshmi Rajwade from Bhatgaon, Geeta Ghasi Sahu from Khujji, Shakuntala Singh Porthe from Bhatgaon and Sarla Kosaria from Saraipali.

ABCD formula for Chhattisgarh

The BJP has divided 90 seats in Chhattisgarh into 4 categories such as A, B, C and D category. A category contains seats where the BJP has won every time. The b category contains seats where the party has won and lost. C-category seats signify where the party is on a weak footing. BJP has never been able to win on D category seats.

New faces in Surajpur

BJP bets on new candidates in all three assembly seats of Surajpur district. Bhulan Singh Maravi will contest from Prem Nagar Assembly (General) while Laxmi Rajwada and Shakuntala Singh have been given tickets from Bhatgaon Legislative Assembly (General) and Pratappur Assembly (ST) respectively.

BJP has made Rohit Sahu its candidate from Rajim. Rohit Sahu contested from the Jogi Congress Party in the last election. Rohit got more than 13,000 votes. Two-and-a-half-year ago, Rohit Sahu joined BJP in the presence of Raman Singh along with about 13,000 workers. Rohit Sahu has also been the president of Sarpanch Sangh.

Ramvichar Netam and Vijay Baghel have been candidates in the past. BJP has kept faith in Ramvichar Netam, former Rajya Sabha MP. BJP has fielded Lakhan Lal Dewangan from the Korba assembly. Expressing confidence in him, the BJP gave him the MLA ticket from the Katghora assembly in the 2013 assembly elections. Lakhan won the 2013 elections and was the MLA from Katghora as well as the parliamentary secretary. After this, in 2018, he lost the assembly elections from Katghora. He was defeated by Purushottam Kanwar, son of senior tribal leader and six-time MLA Bodhram Kanwar.