Around 20 of 70 Chhattisgarh Congress MLAs unlikely to be renominated

The Congress is likely to deny nominations to around 20 of its 70-odd sitting MLAs in Chhattisgarh, where the party is trying to retain power by overcoming incumbency issues, said party functionaries. However, they said, all the ministers in the Bhupesh Baghel government will be re-nominated, as the party's main election plank is its governance record over the past five years.

"About 15-20 sitting Congress MLAs will focus on our organisational mobilisation for the election this time, by making way for new faces to fight as the party candidates," said a Chhattisgarh Congress leader, who did not wish to be identified.

This is part of a plan to minimise the incumbency burden, which the party leadership's analysis of the feedback based on internal surveys found against many Congress legislators.


The central election committee (CEC) of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) is learnt to have finalised the candidates for about 60 of the total 90 assembly segments in Chhattisgarh, and with more CEC sittings scheduled, the AICC could start announcing the candidates in batches from Sunday as the 'Shraadh' period is ending on Saturday, people familiar with the development said.

The party may also try to field more women and youths while giving numerical prominence to Scheduled Tribes and other backward classes, keeping in mind the social demography of the state. Chhattisgarh goes to the polls first in this round of assembly elections involving five states.

MP Meeting

The CEC held yet another meeting on Friday to discuss the party candidates for Madhya Pradesh. Pradesh Congress Committee president Kamal Nath said the CEC meeting discussed 60 seats (last meeting had processed more than 100 seats) and that it will meet again to finalise the remaining seats. "We will announce our list (of candidates) after the 'Shraadh'. That is our plan. It is better to have more deliberations and many new things can come up," he said.

Rajasthan Discussion

The CEC for Rajasthan is slated to start after October 18 and Telangana party leaders have already held many rounds of discussions with the screening committee to finalise their candidates. While the BJP has already announced many of its candidates for MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, even during the 'Shraadh' , the BRS has named most of its candidates for the Telangana polls.