PM Modi, Nadda, Shah and Yogi among BJP’s star campaigners for first phase of Chhattisgarh polls

Raipur: The BJP on Thursday released a list of its 40 star campaigners for the first phase of the Chhattisgarh assembly polls, featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The state will go to polls in two phases on November 7 and November 17, while votes will be counted on December 3.

The Chhattisgarh unit of the party shared the list of star campaigners released by the central BJP leadership in Delhi, and it also includes the names of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Dharmendra Pradhan, Smriti Irani, Mansukh Mandaviya and Anurag Singh Thakur.

Uttar Pradesh CM Adityanath and his Madhya Pradesh peer Shivraj Singh Chouhan have also been included in the list.

Among the senior Chhattisgarh BJP leaders named as star campaigners are the party’s state chief Arun Sao, former CM Raman Singh, MPs Santosh Pandey and Guharam Ajgalle, and MLA Brijmohan Agrawal.

Sharing the list with the Election Commission of India, the BJP said in a letter that “this list may be treated as valid for the remaining assembly constituencies figuring in the second phase of polling for Chhattisgarh, unless it forwards an amended list for the remaining phase within the prescribed time limit”.

Of the total 90 constituencies in the state, 20 seats falling in seven districts of Naxalite-affected Bastar division and Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki, Rajnandgaon, Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai, and Kabirdham districts will go to polls in the first phase.

The remaining 70 constituencies will see polling in the second phase.

The opposition BJP has so far announced candidates for 86 seats, while the ruling Congress has declared names in 83 constituencies.

In the last assembly polls in 2018, the Congress had won in 17 of these constituencies, while BJP had ended up with two and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) one. Congress later won two more seats of the remaining three in bypolls.

Prominent candidates to contest from the BJP for the November 7 elections are Raman Singh and former state ministers Kedar Kashyap, Lata Usendi, Vikram Usendi and Mahesh Gagda, apart from ex-IAS officer Neelkanth Tekam.

State Congress chief and MP Deepak Baij, ministers Kawasi Lakhma and Mohan Markam are among the governing party’s key candidates in the first phase.

The Congress registered a landslide victory in the 2018 polls winning 68 seats and comfortably formed the government. The BJP was reduced to 15 seats, while the JCC (J) and the BSP bagged 5 and 2 seats, respectively. The current strength of the Congress is 71.