Chhattisgarh Polls: 57 BJP MLAs to Assess Ground Level Situation

Raipur: ‘Select’ BJP MLAs from other states have been roped in to gather feedback on the ground level situation in each of the 90 assembly constituencies in Chhattisgarh ahead of the year-end polls.

Each of these MLAs has been assigned the charge of one assembly constituency where they are going to spend a week to interact with the local workers and leaders of the party and also the local influencers to gather feedback on the ground level situation and submit a report to the party, sources said here on Monday.

As many as 57 BJP MLAs from the states of Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Bihar have arrived here for the purpose.

“Fifty seven MLAs from other states were given one-day training on Monday on the ground level political situation in the assembly constituencies in the state”, Chhattisgarh unit BJP president Arun Sao said.

Each of them will camp in an assembly constituency in the state for a week to assess the ground level situation by interacting with the local party workers and leaders and also give them the poll winning tips by sharing their experiences with them, he added.

Sources said that a group of BJP MLAs from West Bengal are also arriving in Chhattisgarh shortly to join the feedback gathering campaign launched by the party in each of the 90 assembly constituencies in the state.

BJP which has lost power in Chhattisgarh to Congress in 2018 assembly elections after ruling the state consecutively for three terms last week declared its first list of candidates for 21 seats even before the assembly elections in the state, due in November this year, are declared.

The party had lost all these 21 seats in the last assembly elections.

Of them, the party had lost 19 seats to Congress and the remaining two seats were lost to Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC), founded by late chief minister Ajit Jogi.

The average margin of victory in these seats was 30,734 votes in the last assembly polls.

Significantly, the party has fielded new faces in 16 out of these 21 seats, most of whom are elected representatives of local rural bodies.

The party has also fielded BJP Lok Sabha member Vijay Baghel in Patan assembly constituency, currently represented by chief minister Bhupesh Baghel.

In the 2018 assembly polls in the state, Congress had secured a massive victory by bagging 68 out of 90 seats.

While BJP had won 15 seats, the alliance of JCC and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had secured five and two seats respectively.