Raipur:A day after the BJP named a tribal surgeon as its candidate for the Marwahi assembly bypoll in Chhattisgarh, the ruling Congress on Monday fielded a veteran doctor against him.
Dr Krishan Kumar Dhruw, who had a long stint as the block medical officer (BMO) in the area, is the Congress candidate from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserved seat where polling will take place on November 3.
The Marwahi seat, which falls in the newly-formed Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi (GPM) district, fell vacant following the death of sitting MLA and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) chief Ajit Jogi in May.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal for the candidature of Dr Dhruw for the Marwahi by-election, a party's state spokesperson here said.
The 56-year-old Dhruw, who had joined the government service as a medical officer in Lemru (Korba district) in 1998, was transferred to the Marwahi community health centre in 2001.
Since 2004, the MBBS graduate had been posted as the BMO in Marwahi before he resigned recently to enter politics.
I have been discharging my services to the people of Marwahi as a medical professional for the past 20 years and now will work for their other development issues, he told.
The BJP on Sunday had announced Dr Gambheer Singh, a former professor of Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Medical College Raipur, as its nominee for the bypoll.
The constituency has been the bastion of the Jogis since the formation of the state in 2000.