Chhattisgarh Assembly elections: AAP releases first list of 10 candidates

The list includes Komal Hupendi, the state unit chief of the party, and Tejram Vidrohi, a prominent farmers' leader; five candidates are Scheduled Tribes (STs)

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday announced its first list of 10 candidates for the upcoming Chhattisgarh Assembly election to be held later this year.

Among the 10 candidates, five are Scheduled Tribes (STs). The list includes Komal Hupendi, the party's state unit chief, and Tejram Vidrohi, a prominent farmers' leader.

The AAP announced the candidates' list on X (formerly Twitter).

The party tweeted: "First list of AAP candidates for Chhattisgarh elections is out. All the best to all candidates. Iss baar chalegi jhadu (this time, the broom will sweep)."

In the 2018 Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, the AAP fielded 85 candidates, but no one registered a win. In the elections, the Congress emerged victorious by securing a majority in the 90-member House and ending the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 15-year rule.

Komal Hupendi, who contested and lost the Bhanupratappur (ST) constituency in 2018, will contest from the same constituency. He joined the AAP party in 2016. Tejram Vidrohi will contest from the Rajim constituency, while Anand Prakash Miri, the head of the party's poll manifesto committee, will contest in the elections from the Akaltara constituency.

The other candidates in the list are Baloo Ram Bhawani (Dantewada-ST), Narendra Kumar Nag (Narayanpur-ST), Vishal Kelkar (Korba), Raja Ram Lakra (Pathalgaon-ST), Khadagraj Singh (Kawardha), Surendra Gupta (Bhatgaon), and Leos Minj (Kunkuri-ST).

Kelkar contested the 2018 Assembly elections as an independent candidate from the Korba constituency and received 4,859 votes.

In the 2018 elections, the Congress won 68 seats, while the BJP got just 15 seats.

The BJP had previously released its first list of candidates for 21 seats in Chhattisgarh, while the ruling Congress is yet to announce its list of candidates.