Chhattisgarh CM among 51 filing nominations for Assembly polls

RAIPUR: With just one more day remaining for the filing of nominations for the first phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, a total of 51 nominations were filed today, including one by an incumbent chief minister, kin of a Darbha attack victim, as well as sitting MLAs.

Eighteen Maoist-affected constituencies of South Chhattisgarh will go to polls on November 11, for which 114 nominations have been filed so far.

"On Thursday, 51 nominations were filed," Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kujur told reporters this evening.

Among top names who filed nominations on the sixth day of filing nominations were Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh who filed his nomination from Rajnandgaon, wife of the slain Mahendra Karma, a former Home Minister, Devti Karma (Dantewada), besides sitting BJP MLAs Komal Janghel (Khairagarh), Santosh Bafna (Jagdalpur), Baiduram Kashyap (Chitrakot), Bhima Mandavi (Dantewada) and Mahesh Gagda (Bijapur) of BJP and Deepak Kumar Baij (Chitrakot), as well as Shivraj Singh Usare (Manpur-Mohla) of the Congress.

Chief Minister Raman Singh had won the Rajnandgaon seat against Uday Mudliyar, who was killed in the recent Bastar Maoist attack, with the margin of 32389 votes, but the Congress has now fielded his wife Alka Mudliyar, against the chief minister.

Likewise, Devti Karma, wife of Mahendra Karma,the guiding force behind the 'Salwa Judum', the anti-Maoist operation by pro-government vigilante groups, who was killed in the Bastar Maoist attack, is the Congress nominee from Dantewada Scheduled Tribe seat.