RAIPUR: Bhartiya Janata Party has declared its list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh scheduled later this year.
With only 14 legislators in the 90-member House, the BJP’s move is seen as strategic, when the party’s Central Election Committee announced the names of candidates even before the poll dates are declared by the Election Commission of India.
The names have been finalised by the party’s decision-making body on polls—Central Election Committee in its meeting held on Wednesday and attended by PM Narendra Modi, the president J P Nadda and senior leaders from Chhattisgarh in New Delhi, a senior party leader in Raipur said.
BJP has fielded Vijay Baghel, Durg Lok Sabha member, from Patan seat which happens to be the home constituency of chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. In the 2008 assembly elections, Vijay Baghel defeated Bhupesh Baghel by a margin of 7842.
Chhattisgarh is among the five states along with adjoining Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram going to polls later this year.
The list of the opposition includes five women, ten from Scheduled Tribes and one from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
The state Assembly has 71 members from the ruling Congress party.