CG Assembly Election: All About Candidates

Raipur: Voting for the first phase of Chhattisgarh assembly election will be held on November 7. 223 candidates are in the fray for the election to be held on 20 seats. There are 25 women candidates among them. 

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has analyzed the affidavits of the first-phase candidates. The analysis revealed 115 candidates were qualified from 5th to 12th class, whereas 97 are graduates, three have declared themselves literate and one is illiterate. Three candidates, Kawasi Lakhma, a Congress candidate from Konta assembly constituency, Sarita Singh, Azad Janata Party candidate from Jagdalpur and Shivnath Nishad, an independent candidate, are literate. 

As far as age is concerned, 103 candidates of the first phase are in the age group of 25 to 40 years, while 98 candidates are in the age group of 41 to 60 years. 22 candidates have declared their age as 61 to 80 years. In the first phase, 17 Congress and 14 BJP candidates have wealth in crores. Out of total 10 candidates of Aam Aadmi Party, three have wealth of crores. Two candidates of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) have assets worth more than Rs 1 crore. 

The richest candidate of the first phase is AAP’s Khadgraj Singh from Kawardha seat. Khadagraj’s total assets are Rs 40 crores. At second place is BJP’s Bhavana Bohra from Pandaria, whose assets are worth Rs 33 crore. Meanwhile, Jatin Jaiswal of Congress is the third richest candidate from Jagdalpur. Jatin’s total assets are Rs 16 crores.

In the first phase of election, voting will be held in Konta, Bijapur, Dantewada, Chitrakote, Jagdalpur, Bastar, Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Keshkal, Kanker, Bhanupratappur, Antagarh, Mohla-Manpur, Khujji, Dongargaon, Rajnandgaon, Dongargarh, Khairagarh, Kawardha and Pandariya assembly constituencies.

Out of 223 candidates in the first phase, 26 have criminal cases pending against them. There are serious allegations against 16 of them. Out of 20 BJP candidates, 5 i.e. 25 percent are facing criminal cases. Whereas, criminal cases are registered against two out of 20 (10 per cent) candidates of Congress and four (20 per cent) candidates of Aam Aadmi Party. Whereas, out of 15 candidates of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J), three candidates have criminal cases registered against them.