Congress releases final list of seven candidates, cuts tickets of four sitting MLAs

Raipur The Congress party has released its final list of 7 candidates for Chhattisgarh has been released, taking the number of candidates to 90 which is the strength of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly. Sitting MLA Kuldeep Juneja has been retained from Raipur North constituency while the party has denied tickets to 4 MLAs. The Congress party has declared names for all 90 seats.

The sitting MLAs of Kasdol, Saraipali, Mahasamund, and Sihawa seats have been denied tickets for the 2023 assembly elections slated for November 7 and 17. Meanwhile, in the Dhamtari seat, Gurumukh Singh Hora, who contested for Congress in 2018 and lost, has had his ticket cut, and Omkar Sahu has been given the ticket. In all, the Congress party has cut tickets for 22 MLAs this time and provided new faces with the opportunity. Congress -BJP Face-off\ Raipur North-Purandar Mishra vs Kuldeep Juneja Sihawa- Shravan Markam vs Ambika Markam Baikunthpur – Bhayalal Rajwade vs Ambika Singhdeo Mahasamund – Yogeshwar Raju Sinha vs Rashmi Chandrakar Dhamtari – Ranjana Deependra Sahu vs Omkar Sahu \Congress’ Caste Composition on 90 Seats General – 16 candidates SC – 10 candidates ST – 33 candidates OBC – 28 candidates Minority – 3 candidates The ticket of sitting MLA Shakuntala Sahu was cut from Kasdol, and Sandeep Sahu was declared as the candidate. The reason for ticket cut was said to be Shakuntala is close to the Chief Minister but has also been involved in controversies. She was seen with a sand-mining mafia, had issues involving sand mines, and had some misconduct. It has been reported that the decision was made based on a survey. MLA Kismat Nand Lal has been replaced by Chaturi Nand from Mahasamund. The ticket of MLA Vinod Sevanlal Chandrakar was cut, and Rashmi Chandrakar was declared as the candidate. His position was not good in the survey. During a meeting, some issues came up against Chandrakar. Lakshmi Dhruv was replaced by Ambika Markam as the candidate from Sihawa. Lakshmi Dhruv’s supporters were against her for a long time, and they have demanded that someone else be given the ticket instead of her. Feedback for Lakshmi Dhruv in the party’s survey is not positive. The ticket announcement on the final seven seats of Congress has left disappointed candidates and four current MLAs. However, they are saying that they will work for the declared candidates of the party.