Chhattisgarh polls: Congress releases second list of 53 candidates

The Congress on Wednesday released the second list of 53 candidates for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls.

The party has fielded Chhaya Verma, a former member of the Rajya Sabha, from Dharsiwa seat while Arun Vora, son of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and senior Congress leader Motilal Vora, has been given a ticket from Durg City.

Some other prominent candidates who have been named in the second list are Khelsai Singh from Premnagar seat, Atal Srivastav from Kota, Baleshwar Sahu from Jaijaipur, Mahant Ram Sundar Das from Raipur City South and Devendra Yadav from Bhilai Nagar.

The party fielded sitting MLA Vikas Upadhyay from the Raipur City West assembly seat and Pankaj Sharma from Raipur Rural assembly constituency. It has named Jitin Jaiswal from Jagdalpur and Shailesh Pandey from Bilaspur.

On Sunday, the Congress announced a list of 30 candidates for Chhattisgarh, with incumbent chief minister Bhupesh Baghel fielded from Patan assembly seat, his deputy and senior party leader TS Singh Deo from Ambikapur assembly seat, and Tamradhwaj Sahu from Durg rural assembly seat.

Chhattisgarh will go to polls in two phases on 7 and 17 November. Counting of votes will be taken up on 3 December.