NEW DELHI/RAIPUR: The Central Election Committee of Indian National Congress has finally released the 53 names of Congress candidates for the ensuing general elections to the Legislative Assembly of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday. Thus, the Congress has declared a total 83 candidates for the 90 seats.

Congress which had withheld the Jagdalpur seat has announced the name of former Mayor Jatin Jaiswal as its candidate. He is considered close to Deputy Chief Minister TS Singh Deo. 58-year-old Jatin is the new face for Congress. BJP has nominated its former Mayor Kiran Dev from Jagdalpur seat. Thus, it will be a clash between two former Mayors on Jagdalpur unreserved seat.

As per the list released, Bharatpur-Sonhat (ST) Gulab Singh Kamro, Manendragarh (General) Ramesh Singh, Premnagar (General) Khelsai Singh, Bhatgaon (General) Premnath Rajwade, Pratappur (ST) Rajkumar Marawi, Ramanujganj (ST) Dr. Ajay Tirkey, Samri (ST) Vijay Paikra, Lundra (ST) Dr. Pritam Ram, Jashpur (ST) Vinay Kumar Bhagat, Kunkuri (ST) U D Minj, Pathalgaon (ST) Rampukar Singh in the Surguja Division.

The Congress candidates for Assembly seats in Bilaspur division are Lailunga (ST) Vidyavati Sidar, Raigarh (General) Prakash Shakrajit Nayak, Sarangarh (SC) Uttari Jangade, Dharamjaigarh (ST) Laljit Singh Rathiya, Rampur (ST) Phoolsingh Rathiya, Katghora (General) Purushottam Kanwar, Pali-Tanakhar (ST) Duleshwari Sidar, Marwahi (ST) Dr. KK Dhruv, Kota (General) Atal Srivastava, Lormi (General) Thaneshwar Sahu, Mungeli (SC) Sanjit Banerjee, Takhatpur (General) Dr. Rashmi Ashish Singh, Bilha (General) Siyaram Kaushik, Bilaspur(General) Shailesh Pandey, Beltara (General) Vijay Kesharwani, Masturi (SC) Dilip Lahariya, Akaltara (General) Raghuvendra Singh, Janjgir-Champa (General) Vyas Kashyap, Chandrapur(General) Ramkumar Yadav, Jaijaipur (General) Baleshwar Sahu, and Pamgarh (SC) Sheshraj Harbansh.

In Raipur division assembly seats the candidates are Basna (General) Devendra Bahadur Singh, Khallari (General) Dwarkadhish Yadav, Bilaigarh (SC) Kavita Pran Lahere, Balodabazar (General) Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, Bhatapara (General) Inderkumar Sao, Dharsiwa (General) Chhaya Verma, Raipur-Rural (General) Pankaj Sharma, Raipur- West (General) Vikas Upadhyay, Raipur-South (General) Mahant Ramsundar Das, Abhanpur (General) Dhanendra Sahu, Rajim (General) Amitesh Shukla, Bindranavagarh(ST) Janaklal Dhruv, and Kurud (General) Tarini Chandrakar.

The candidates for Durg division assembly seats are Sanjari Balod (General) Sangeeta Sinha, Gunderdehi (General) Kunwar Singh Nishad, Durg City (General) Arun Vora, Bhilai Nagar (General) Devendra Yadav, Vaishali Nagar(General) Mukesh Chandrakar, Ahiwara(SC) Nirmal Kosare, and Bemetara (General) Ashish Kumar Chhabra and for the first phase Jagdalpur (General) Jitin Jaiswal.

Elections are going to be held in Chhattisgarh in two phases. In which elections will be held in the first phase on November 7th and in the second phase the date has been fixed on November 17th. The first list of Congress was released on October 15, while the Central Election Committee meeting was held in New Delhi on October 12.