BJP sweeps Chhattisgarh: Who will be named CM? A look at top contenders for the post
Chhattisgarh Assembly Election result 2023: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hovering around 53 seats, comfortably above the majority mark of 45 seats in Chhattisgarh. Let's take a look at the probable contenders for the CM post:
FollowThe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in 53 of 90 assembly seats while the Congress is ahead in 35 seats as per the latest trends. The neck-and-neck fight between Congress and the BJP went on during the early hours of counting. However, the BJP stretched its numbers in the afternoon to secure a massive mandate in the trends. The official results are yet to be announced.
Let's take a look at the probable contenders for the CM post:
- Dr Raman Singh:
The Rajnandgaon seat is considered Dr Raman Singh's stronghold, since he has been elected from it three times in a row. Dr Raman Singh won the constituency in the 2018 Chhattisgarh elections with 80,589 votes and a vote percentage of 51.7%. In 2013, Dr Singh received 86,797 votes and a vote percentage of 58.4 percent.
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During his tenure as the Chief Minister, notable business projects were constructed in the constituency including medical college hospital, international Astroturf hockey stadium, flyover and the Mongra Barrage.
- Arun Sao:
Arun Sao has developed as a significant personality, with a career spanning student activism to national politics. Sao served as the Mungeli unit president of the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) from 1990 to 1995, demonstrating early leadership abilities. He later joined the national working committee.
In 1996, Arun Sao was elected district president of the Youth Morcha and served as secretary with former MLA Amar Agrawal. This was a critical stage in his political development, during which he developed his talents and earned significant experience that would later define his political career. In 2019, he was elected Member of Parliament from Bilaspur. He contested against Lakhn Lal Sahu, who had previously secured victory as an MP with an impressive 1.76 lakh votes in 2014.
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What distinguishes Sao is not just his political acumen, but also his intimate ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
- OP Chaudhary
OP Chaudhary was born in Bayang village of Raigarh. He has been an IAS officer of 2005 batch. Chaudhary became an IAS officer at the age of 23. OP is the first person from his district to become IAS.
Choudhary formerly served as a collector at Raipur and Dantewada. He resigned from the All India Administrative Service (IAS) after 13 years of service in order to serve the people of the hamlet. He has since joined the BJP and is involved in Chhattisgarh politics. He ran in the Raigarh district assembly elections from the Kharsia seat. Umesh Patel, son of late leader Nandkumar Patel, defeated him. Umesh Patel won by 16,967 votes over OP Chaudhary.
- Renuka Singh
Renuka Singh is the current Lok Sabha MP from Surguja seat and one of the party's major candidates in the Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections 2023. She is a Minister of State (MoS) in the BJP-led government at the Centre.
Renuka Singh beat Congress candidate Khel Sai Singh in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by 1,57,873 votes and was later appointed as the Minister of State (MoS) for Tribal Affairs in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP-led administration at the Centre. In the Chhattisgarh Assembly Elections 2023, the BJP has fielded Renuka Singh Saruta from the Bharatpur-Sonhat against Congress candidate Gulab Singh Kamro.
The elections were held in two phases on November 7 and 17. Voter turnout stood at 76.31 per cent, which was slightly lower than the 76.88 per cent recorded in the 2018 polls.
