Raipur: Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh are being held in two phases. Voting for 20 seats in the first phase is on November 7. In the first phase, 8 seats under Durg division and 12 seats under Bastar division are included.
In 12 seats of Bastar division, both BJP and Congress have changed their candidates on many seats. Congress has changed only three sitting MLAs. In 2018, Congress had won 11 other seats except Dantewada. Congress had also won the Dantewada seat in the by-election held in 2019.
Statistics of last 4 elections held in Bastar division
In 2003, 9 BJP, 3 Congress.
In 2008, 11 BJP, 1 Congress.
In 2013, 8 Congress, 4 BJP.
In 2018, 11 Congress, 1 BJP.
Talking about social equations, 11 out of 12 seats in the division are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Only Jagdalpur seat is unreserved.
This time, Congress has fielded a candidate from OBC (Kalar Samaj) instead of general on the unreserved Jagdalpur seat. In the general category itself, BJP has fielded a candidate from Thakur community instead of Jain community.
Other 11 seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribe category. In the tribal category, Congress has fielded 8 candidates from Gond community, 2 from Bhatra community and 1 from Muria community. Whereas BJP has 5 candidates from Gond community, 3 from Muria community, 1 from Dorla community, 1 from Halba community and 1 from Bhatra community.
The candidates of Gond Samaj Congress include Roop Singh Potai, Savitri Mandavi, Shankar Dhruv, Santram Netam, Mohan Markam, Chavindra Karma, Vikram Mandavi, Kawasi Lakhma. The candidates from Bhatra community include Chandan Kashyap and Lakheshwar Baghel. Deepak Baij is the candidate from Muria community.
BJP candidates from Gond community include Vikram Usendi, Gautam Uike, Asharam Netam, Neelkanth Tekam and Lata Usendi. Maniram Kashyap, Vinayak Goyal from Muria community are included. Chaitram Atami from Madiya community, Soyam Muka from Dorla community, Mahesh Gagda from Halba community, Kedar Kashyap from Bhatra community.