NEW DELHI: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its first list of 77 candidates for the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, slated to be held in two phases in mid-November. In the Central election committee meeting held at the party headquarters in New Delhi, the party also announced the names of 38 candidates for Telangana and 13 candidates for Mizoram. The BJP has announced it would contest 38 of the 119 seats in Telangana.
Former IAS officer OP Chaudhary will be contesting from Chhattisgarh’s Kharsia constituency, Union minister JP Nadda told reporters after the BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in Delhi.
Chief Minister Raman Singh has been fielded from Rajnandgaon, a seat for which the Congress is yet to declare its candidate. The Congress has been out of power in the state for 15 years.
The paty is also fielding tribal leader Ramdayal Uike, who recently left the Congress and joined the BJP.
Among the 77 candidates announced today, 14 are women and 14 sitting MLAs have been replaced with new names, Union minister J P Nadda said.
Nadda, the Telangana BJP election in-charge, said that the BJP would contest 13 seats in the Mizoram Assembly elections. Eighteen Naxal-affected constituencies in Chhattisgarh will go to polls in the first phase on November 12, while the remaining 72 constituencies would go to polls in the second phase on November 20.
Voting in Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana will be held in a single phase, on November 28 and December 7, respectively. In 2013 also elections in Chhattisgarh were held in two phases on November 11 and 19.Notification for the first phase of the Chhattisgarh polls will be issued on October 16 and the last date for nominations would be October 23. There are 90 Assembly constituencies in Chhattisgarh.
14 MLAs dropped
Among the candidates announced on Saturday, 14 are women and 14 sitting MLAs have been replaced with new names, Union minister J P Nadda said.