Cong drops 10 MLAs in 2nd list for key elections

The Congress on Wednesday denied tickets to 10 sitting lawmakers in its second list of 53 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, in an apparent bid to blunt anti-incumbency against local leaders and retain power in the heartland state. With this, the state's ruling party has announced candidates for 83 of the 90 assembly seats and dropped 18 incumbent legislators in all.

- Ritesh Mishra

The Congress is looking to retain power in the two-phase elections scheduled for November 7 and 17. HT had reported on October 5 that the Congress is likely to deny tickets to 18-20 sitting MLAs, citing their poor performance in internal surveys.

In a statement, state Congress chief Deepak Baij said all the candidates who were given the ticket in this list are capable of winning the elections. "The candidates list is well balanced and with this list, we are winning 75 seats out of 90," he said. Prominent among those dropped were Premsai Singh Tekam, Vinay Jaiswal and Rekhchand Jain.

Of the 53 seats, 14 are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and six for Scheduled Caste (SC) categories. Ten women were part of the second list of the party, which released its first list of 30 candidates on October 15.

Out of the 33 general seats where candidates were declared on Wednesday, the party nominated 17 leaders from the Other Backward Classes (OBC), taking the total number of picks from the backward communities to 27. In 2018, the Congress gave tickets to a total of 28 OBCs.