Chhattisgarh Assembly polls: JCC(J) releases first list of 16 candidates

Of the 16 constituencies, eight are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and one for Scheduled Caste (SC) categories

The Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) on Friday released its first list of 16 candidates for the first phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections.

Of these 16 seats, the JCC (J) had won one — Khairagarh — in the 2018 Assembly elections. The party, however, lost the seat by-elections in 2022.

Out of these 16 constituencies, eight are reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and one for Scheduled Caste (SC) categories.

According to the list, the other JCC (J) candidates are Ravi Chandravanshi (Pandariya seat), Sunil Kesharwani (Kawardha), Lucky Kunwar Netam (Khairagarh), Loknath Bharti (Dongargarh-SC), Shamshul Alam (Rajnandgaon), Mukesh Sahu (Dongargaon), Vinod Puram (Khujji), Nagesh Puram (Mohla-Manpur-ST), Shankar Netam (Kondagaon-ST), Baliram Kachlam (Narayanpur-ST), Sonsai Kashyap (Bastar-ST), Navneet Chand (Jagdalpur), Bharat Kashyap (Chitrakot-ST), Bela Netam (Dantewada-ST), Ramdhar Jurri (Bijapur-ST) and Devendra Telam (Konta -ST).

The party has not listed any female candidates in the first list. The JCC (J) had contested the last elections in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Last month, former chief minister and founder of JCC (J) Ajit Jogi said that his party was reaching out to the Sarva Adivasi Samaj (SAS) and the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) for an alliance, but nothing has been set so far in this direction.

In 2018, the Congress came to power after winning 68 of the 90 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finished second with 15 seats. The JCC (J) bagged five seats, and its ally, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), won two.

The polling for the 90-member Assembly is scheduled in two phases on November 7 and 17.