The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has released a list of nine candidates, including its two sitting MLAs, for the forthcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, a State party leader said on August 9.
Assembly elections in the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh are due this year-end and the poll schedule has not yet been declared.
On the direction of BSP national president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, the list of nine candidates, featuring two sitting MLAs including a woman, for the Chhattisgarh elections was released late Tuesday night, party's State president Hemant Poyam told PTI.
“Legislators Keshav Prasad Chandra and Indu Banjare, who represent Jaijaipur (Sakti district) and Scheduled Caste-reserved Pamgarh (Janjgir-Champa district) seats, respectively, have been fielded from their respective segments,” he said.
As per the list, the other candidates are Dauram Ratnakar (Masturi seat-reserved for SC candidates), Omprakash Bachpayee (Nawagarh-SC reserved), Radheshyam Suryavanshi (Janjgir-Champa), Vinod Sharma (Akaltara), Shayam Tandan (Bilaigarh - SC reserved), Ramkumar Suryavanshi (Beltara) and Anand Tigga (Samri - reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates).
The BSP contested the 2018 State Assembly elections in alliance with the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
The Mayawati-led party had won two seats - Jaijaipur and Pamgarh - and polled 4.27% votes, while its alliance partner JCC (J) bagged five seats and got 7.6% votes. This time, these parties have not announced a tie-up so far.
