Chhattisgarh Election 2023: All About Major Issues, Key Seats and Prominent Candidates

Chhattisgarh is going for polling for the first phase in 20 seats on November 7 (Tuesday). The state is one of the five states heading for polls this month where the BJP is going all out against the ruling Congress government led by Bhupesh Baghel.

Chhattisgarh is the only one among the five states where Congress sits comfortably in terms of its seat share and voters’ percentage in the last assembly election and bypoll.

In Chhattisgarh, the politics has been dominated by the Congress and the BJP, while AAP is a new party in the state that tried its luck for the first time in the 2018 polls.

CHHATTISGARH ELECTION 2023

Polling for the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17, while the counting of votes will be taken up on December 3.

In the first phase, polling will be held in 20 seats in seven districts of the Naxal-affected Bastar division and four other districts, namely Rajnandgaon, Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki, Kabirdham and Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai.

Polling in Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta (all reserved for Scheduled Tribe category) constituencies will take place from 7am to 3pm, officials said. Polling will take place between 8am and 5pm in the remaining 10 seats, namely Khairgarh, Dongargarh (Scheduled Caste), Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Pandariya, Kawardha, Bastar (ST), Jagdalpur and Chitrakot (ST), said a statement issued by the office of Chief Electoral Officer here.

CHHATTISGARH ELECTION 2023 POLLING AND RESULT DATES

Chhattisgarh Election 2023 Polling Date: November 7 & 17

Chhattisgarh Election 2023 Result Date: December 3

CHHATTISGARH ELECTION TIMELINE

CHHATTISGARH ELECTION KEY ISSUES 2023: WHAT MATTERS TO VOTERS?

The Congress is banking heavily on the popularity of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. Baghel, in a major announcement, has announced his party will waive the loans of farmers if Congress comes back to power. The Baghel government had earlier said it fulfilled the 2018 promise and waived agriculture loans worth Rs 9,270 crore of 18.82 lakh farmers in the state.

BJP has accused the Congress government in Chhattisgarh on a host of issues, including religious conversion, corruption, and violence. The BJP has set corruption as its main election issue in the state, with several scams surfacing ahead of the polls. Union Minister Amit Shah has accused the Congress government in the state of multiple scams and diversion of central funds allegedly to help the Congress party in Delhi.

CHHATTISGARH 2018 RESULTS

The Congress registered a landslide victory in the 2018 polls by bagging 68 seats and comfortably formed government. The BJP was reduced to 15 seats, while the JCC (J) and the BSP bagged 5 and 2 seats, respectively. The current strength of the Congress in the state assembly is 71.

Congress- 68

BJP- 15

BSP+ – 7

Others- 0

MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES AND ALLIANCES

Chhattisgarh has always witnessed a bipolar politics dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. However, the state saw the entry of a third front in the 2018 polls when former chief minister late Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) contested as part of an alliance and bagged seven seats.

This time, the ruling Congress also faces strong challenge from Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, who has announced candidates for 45 seats.

KEY CONTESTS AND BATTLEGROUND CONSTITUENCIES

The ruling Congress has announced candidates for all 90 seats, while the opposition BJP has declared its candidates for 86 seats.

Some of the prominent seats in the assembly elections are:

1. Patan: Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel represents this rural constituency in Durg district, bordering capital Raipur. Baghel has been elected five times from this seat since 1993, except in 2008, where he lost to the BJP’s Vijay Baghel.
2. Rajnandgaon: The seat is currently held by former chief minister Raman Singh. In the 2018 polls, Congress had fielded Karuna Shukla, who resigned from the BJP and joined Congress. Congress leader and Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation Chairman Girish Dewangan has also been fielded from the seat against Raman Singh.
3. Ambikapur: This tribal-dominated seat is currently held by deputy chief minister T S Singh Deo, who is also rival within Congress Bhupesh Baghel.
4. Konta: The ST seat falls in the Naxal-affected Sukma district in south Chhattisgarh.
5. Kondagaon: This seat in Kondagaon district in south Chhattisgarh is currently held by former state Congress chief Mohan Markam.
6. Sakti: Chhattisgarh assembly speaker Charan Das Mahant has been re-nominated from his Sakti seat.
7. Ahiwara: State Minister Guru Rudra Kumar, who contested the 2018 poll from Ahiwara seat (Durg district), has been fielded from Navagarh-SC constituency in the neighbouring Bemetara district.

KEY CANDIDATES

• Bhupesh Baghel: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has filed nomination papers from his traditional Patan Assembly seat, from where he has been elected five times– in 1993, 1998, 2003, 2013 and 2018. In 2008, he lost to the BJP’s Vijay Baghel, who is also his nephew.
• Raman Singh: Former Chief Minister Raman Singh has ruled Chhattisgarh for fifteen years between 2003 and 2018. Singh, one of BJP’s longest-serving CMs, will contest this year’s assembly elections from the Rajnandgaon seat.
• TS Singh Deo: TS Singh Deo, a scion of a royal family and a three-time MLA, has been winning Ambikapur seat since 2008. He is the richest MLA in Chhattisgarh with assets over Rs 500 crore, according to ADR’s 2018 report.
• Brijmohan Agrawal: Brijmohan Agrawal is a prominent BJP leader and former minister, who has remained undefeated in the state since 1990, registering a staggering win seven terms. Agrawal, is considered the senior most leader in the BJP leadership and was the number two during Raman Singh government.
• Charandas Das Mahant: Chhattisgarh Speaker and Congress leader Charan Das Mahant has been leading the party campaign in the state from the forefront. Mahant, who belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC), has a wide acceptance among the various party factions in the state as a “neutral face”. He won his first Lok Sabha election in 1998 and was re-elected in 1999 and then in 2009 when he was the only Congress MP from Chhattisgarh, according to NDTV.