Even before the elections were officially announced, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its initial list of 21 candidates for the Chhattisgarh assembly elections on Thursday. Laxmi Rajwade, Shakuntala Singh Porthe, Sarla Kosaria, Alka Chandrakar, and Geeta Ghasi Sahu are among the five women on the party’s list of 21 candidates for the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly. A distant nephew of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Durg MP Vijay Baghel is also listed on the list.
Vijay Baghel is to contest the poll from Patan assembly seat.
The party had earlier named the Durg MP, who was in Congress till 2000, as in charge of its manifesto committee, heading a group of 30 leaders.
Meanwhile, BJP has also declared the names of 39 candidates for the 230-seat Madhya Pradesh Assembly.
The elections in these two states are due later this year.
The BJP had announced its list of candidates in Karnataka late compared to its rivals in the state. The party lost the polls in the southern state.
The early declaration of the first list in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh is being seen as a move to give more time to candidates to campaign.
BJP is the first national party to declare candidates for both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh
The announcement follows discussions in the Party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting about the campaigning in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The CEC discussed seats and election preparations in Chhattisgarh, which is due to hold elections.