Assembly Elections 2023: BJP Releases First List of Candidates for Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday released the first list of candidates for Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.

Tickets of 21 candidates have been confirmed in the first list for Chhattisgarh polls while 39 candidates made it to the first list for Madhya Pradesh election.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP pitted Sarla Vijendra Rawat from Sabalgarh, Priyanka Meena from Chachoura, Surendra Singh Gaharwar from Chitrakoot, 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, among others.

In Chhattisgarh,  Bhulan Singh Maravi is contesting from Premnagar, Mahesh Sahu from Kharsia, Rohit Sahu from Rajim, 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), among others.

The party has fielded Vijay Baghel, its Durg MP, from Patan which is currently represented by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel.

The list of candidates was released a day after the BJP held its first Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in Delhi’s party headquarters to “discuss names”.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh, and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, among others.

Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Rajya Sabha member Om Mathur—who are in charge of Chhattisgarh for the party—were also present along with party’s in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnav.

Senior BJP leader and former Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh and Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan were also in attendance.

The BJP in 2018 had won only 15 of the 90 seats in the Chhattisgarh assembly against 68 of the Congress while its tally of seats was 109 against 114 of the Congress in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly.