Raipur Not a single member of the Royal family has been elected in the assembly elections 2023 in which the BJP has returned to power after five years of exile. However, for the first time after the formation of the state, the new assembly will not have any members from the Royal families of the state. All the leaders associated with the Royal family have lost the elections. Moreover, several candidates who aimed to carry forward the political legacy have faced defeat in these elections. Both Congress and BJP had fielded three candidates each from the Royal families of Chhattisgarh, while the Aam Aadmi Party had one candidate. Since the state’s formation in 2000, members of the Royal families have consistently been part of the Chhattisgarh Assembly in all five terms. Six candidates were in such positions, responsible not just for winning seats but also for furthering the political inheritance of their families. However, in these elections, the veteran political families suffered significant defeats. Deputy chief minister T S Singhdeo faced defeat in the elections. Similarly, Congress candidates Ambika Singhdeo from Baikunthpur and Devendra Bahadur Singh from Basna also faced defeat. Members of the Royal family who contested from the BJP and faced defeat include Sanyogita Singhdeo, Prabal Pratap Singh Judeo, and Sanjeev Shah. Among those defeated were leaders coming from prominent political families like Arun Vora, Pankaj Sharma, Chhavindra Karma, Amitesh Shukla, and Rudra Guru. Even Renu Jogi, wife of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, and their son Amit Jogi had to face decisive losses. TS Singhdeo, a descendant of the Sarugula Royal family, faced a narrow defeat by 94 votes against Rajesh Agrawal from the BJP in the Ambikapur constituency. Singhdeo was considered a contender for the Chief Minister’s post after the 2018 elections when the Congress came to power, and he served as an MLA for three consecutive terms in 2008, 2013, and 2018. The Singhdeo family holds influence in the northern region of Chhattisgarh. In the 2018 elections, the Congress won all 14 assembly seats in this area, but this time, the BJP turned the tables and secured victories in these constituencies. Ambika Singhdeo, a member of the Royal family from the Saruguja region, faced defeat against Bhaiyalal Rajwade from the BJP with a margin of 25,413 votes in her Baikunthpur constituency, a seat she had won in the 2018 elections. Ambika Singhdeo hails from the royal family of Korea, which has been active in the state’s politics for a long time. One of this family’s members, Ramchandra Singhdeo, served as the first Finance Minister of Chhattisgarh under the Congress government led by Ajit Jogi. Devendra Bahadur Singh, a Congress candidate from the Basna constituency, faced defeat. Devendra Bahadur Singh, a member of the former Gond Shahi family of Phuljhar, had been a four-time MLA and served as a state minister in the cabinet led by Ajit Jogi from 2000 to 2003. Two members of the Judeo family contested from the BJP tickets in the elections and faced defeat: Sanyogita Singh Judeo and Prabal Pratap Singh Judeo. Dilip Singh Judeo, a deceased leader of the family, was also associated with the BJP. Dilip Singh Judeo, father of the late Judeo, was a king of the Jashpur Shahi family. Judeo also served as a Member of Parliament and was the Minister of State for Environment and Forests in the government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. His son Yudhvir Singh Judeo had been an MLA twice from the Chandrapur constituency, which falls in the nearby Bilaspur division. Yudhvir’s wife Sanyogita Singh faced consecutive defeats from the Chandrapur constituency. Prabal Pratap Singh Judeo, Dilip Singh Judeo’s other son, faced defeat from the Kota constituency against Atal Srivastava of the Congress by 7,957 votes.
