BJP releases first list of candidates for Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh elections ahead of poll dates announcement

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced first list of candidates for Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Polling in both the states are due later this year.

In the first list, BJP has announced 21 candidates for the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly, while 39 names have been released for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh house.

Notably, five women have been named in the first list of candidates for each states for the upcoming Assembly polls.

भारतीय जनता पार्टी केन्द्रीय चुनाव समिति की बैठक भाजपा राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री @JPNadda की अध्यक्षता में कल दिनांक 16.08.2023 को संपन्न हुई।

केन्द्रीय चुनाव समिति ने छत्तीसगढ़ एवं मध्य प्रदेश में होने वाले आगामी विधानसभा चुनाव 2023 के लिए निम्नलिखित नामों पर अपनी स्वीकृति प्रदान… pic.twitter.com/SxDPiWW44d

— BJP (@BJP4India) August 17, 2023

The announcement of the candidates for Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the BJP's central election committee, the party's decision-making body for selection of candidates and preparation of poll strategies. The meeting was also attended by party chief JP Nadda and Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah among other senior leaders

In Chhattigarh, BJP has fielded Vijay Baghel, its Durg MP, from Patan which is currently represented by the state Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel.

Other whom the BJP has fielded from different seats in Chhattigarh are: Bhulan Singh Maravi from Premnagar, Laxmi Rajwade from Bhatgaon, Shakuntala Singh Porthe from Pratappur (ST), Sarla Kosaria from Saraipali (SC), Alka Chandrakar from Khallari, Gita Ghasi Sahu from Khujji and Maniram Kashyap from Bastar (ST).

For Madhya Pradesh, the party has fielded Sarla Vijendra Rawat from Sabalgarh, Priyanka Meena from Chachaoura, Lalita Yadav from Chhatarpur, Anchal Sonkar from Jabalpur Purba (SC), Nirmala Bhuriya from Petlawad, Bhanu Bhuriya from Jhabua (ST), Alok Sharma from Bhopal Uttar and Dhruv Narayan Singh from Bhopal Madhya.

Five states will go to polls this year, ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP decision to announce the first list of candidates so early underlines the significance it has attached to five state elections. Besides Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram are scheduled to go to polls later this year.

Of these five states, the BJP is in power only in Madhya Pradesh. The party has been carrying out intense campaigns to dethrone the Congress government in Chhattisgarh.

In 2018 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 15 of the 90 seats in the Chhattisgarh against 68 seats bagged by the Congress.

The saffron party's tally of seats was 109 against 114 of the Congress in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly. Congress' Kamal Nath formed the government in the state, but later 22 legislators of his party topped it and brought the BJP back into power.

With inputs from agencies