Raipur, May 6: Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, along with six other Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, will go to polls on May 7 in the third phase of the General Elections. The Raipur constituency is set to witness a contest between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Brijmohan Agarwal, an eight-time MLA (1993-2023) and Congress leader Vikas Upadhyay.

The Raipur Lok Sabha constituency includes night assembly seats, which include Baloda Bazar, Bhatapara, Dharsiwa, Raipur City, Raipur City West, Raipur City North, Raipur City South, Arang and Abhanpur. BJP had registered victory in the seat in both the 2019 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Out of 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, the BJP bagged nine seats in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, while the Congress won two of them. Durg Lok Sabha Election 2024: BJP Leader and Incumbent MP Vijay Baghel Eyes Second Consecutive Win in This Parliamentary Constituency of Chhattisgarh, to Face Congress' Rajendra Sahu.

The BJP won the Chhattisgarh assembly polls in December last year, even though Congress was confident that it would return to power. During the 2019 elections, the BJP's Sunil Kumar Soni defeated the Congress' Pramod Dubey with a margin of 3,48,238 votes. Kumar Soni clinched 837,902 votes, while Dubey garnered 489,664 votes.

In 2019, Raipur constituency had 2,046,014 electors and 1,396,250 valid votes. The total voter turnout in the 2019 Lok Sabha election stood at 73 per cent, indicating a significant level of civic engagement in the electoral process. In 2014, the BJP's Ramesh Bais won with 652,944 votes, with Congress' Narayan Sharma coming in second.

The BJP has been winning the Raipur parliamentary seat continuously since 1996. Earlier, following the announcement on March 2 of his candidature from Chhattisgarh, Raipur for the Lok Sabha polls 2024, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Brijmohan Agrawal asserted that he welcomes the decision of the central leadership. Madhepura Lok Sabha Election 2024: Yadav Stronghold Set for Interesting Battle in This Parliamentary Constituency of Bihar.

"The central leadership decides what responsibilities I will get. I welcome the decision of the central leadership. This challenge would be undefeated under PM Modi's leadership. PM Modi's guarantees have been welcomed by the country. The BJP will win more than 400 seats because of people's faith in those guarantees. We will all have 11 seats in Chhattisgarh," Agrawal said.

The first list of 195 candidates released by the BJP on March 2 included the names of all BJP candidates in all 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, which include: Chintamani Maharaj, Radheshyam Rathia, Kamlesh Jangde, Saroj Pandey, Tokhan Sahu, Santosh Pandey, Vijay Baghel, Brijmohan Agarwal, Roop Kumari Choudhary, Mahesh Kashyap and Bhojraj Nag.

In the first list of 195 candidates, the BJP included 28 women, 47 youth, 27 Scheduled Castes, 18 Scheduled Tribes and 57 OBCs. Polling took place in Bastar in the first phase on April 19, while Rajnandgaon, Mahasamund and Kanker voted in the second phase on April 26. Congress fielded Vikas Upadhyay from Raipur in its first list on March 8. The list includes the candidatures of Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha, Vikas Upadhyay from Raipur, Tamradhwaj Sahu from Mahasamund, Rajendra Sahu from Durg, Jyotsna Mahant from Korba and Shiv Dahariya from Janjgir-Champa.

After his candidature for the Raipur Lok Sabha seat, Upadhyay said, "The greatest happiness for a soldier is when he is given a leadership role in his party. While I consider myself an ordinary worker, I want to express my gratitude to the party leadership, to Mallikarjun Kharge, to Rahul Gandhi, to the state leadership, and to all the other leaders. I want to say thank you because they have placed such a great amount of trust in me. Along with me, this instills in other workers the belief that if you work for the party, it can assign you significant responsibilities."

Meanwhile, on May 5, coming down heavily on the Congress, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said people not just across the country but within the party have lost faith in them. Confident that the BJP was winning all 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, CM Sai said, "The Congress has lost the faith of not only the country and its people but also its own leaders and cadre. There is an unending sequence of exodus in the Congress. In Chhattisgarh, too, thousands of Congress workers have joined the BJP. Now no matter what they do, people are not going to put their trust in them anymore. Even though they have announced a 'Nari Nyay Yojana', as part of which they have promised to give Rs 1 lakh to women (annually), no one will believe them."

"Sensing the public response on the campaign trail, I can say with absolute confidence that the BJP will win all 11 Lok Sabha seats in Chhattisgarh. Delegates from four countries visited the state recently and got a ringside view of how elections are held here," the CM added. The BJP for the rest of the seat in Chhattisgarh, will vote on April 26 and May 7. The counting of votes will be done on June 4.

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