BJP declares list of candidates for Assembly polls

The central election committee of the BJP on Saturday declared its first list of candidates for the coming Assembly polls in Chattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram. The party declared 77 names out of the total 90 Assembly berths in Chattisgarh that will go to polls in two phases — November 12 and November 20.

Prominent names include that of chief minister Raman Singh, who will contest from Rajnandgaon seat, state unit chief Dharamlal Kaushik from Bilha, cabinet ministers Brijmohan Agarwal from Raipur City South and Amar Agarwal from Bilaspur and sitting MP Vikram Usendi from Antagarh. The party leadership has replaced 14 sitting MLAs.

Telangana’s 119 seats will go to polls on December 7 for which the BJP declared 38 names in the first list, which includes the name of state unit chief K. Laxman. The party also declared 13 names for the Mizoram polls scheduled on November 28 when polling for 40 Assembly berths will take place.

The CEC, headed by party president Amit Shah was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Thavarchand Gehlot, J. P. Nadda, Jual Oram, general secretary ( organisation) Ramlal, national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, mahila morcha chief Vijaya Rahatkar and chief ministers of both Madhya Pradesh and Chattisharh Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh.

Of the 77 names declared by the party for Chattisgarh polls, 14 are women, 25 candidates are less than 40- years- old, 29 belong to Scheduled Tribes, 10 Scheduled Caste and 53 are farmers. This is perhaps for the first time that the BJP announced that it has fielded candidates from the farming background.

Of the total 38 candidates in the first list for Telangana, the party has fielded three women, four youth, three scheduled tribe, six scheduled caste, nine from the farming background.