The Hindu : BJP names 72 candidates for Chhattisgarh polls

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Friday, Nov 07, 2003

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BJP names 72 candidates for Chhattisgarh polls

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI NOV. 6. The Bharatiya Janata Party today declared the names of 72 candidates for the Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, which has a total of 90 seats. With no official announcement on the party's chief ministerial candidate, some of its top leaders in the State who are currently Members of Parliament may not contest the elections at all.

The party State unit president, Raman Singh, today said a decision had been taken that Dilip Singh Judev, Ramesh Bains (both Union ministers), Karuna Shukla (a niece of the Prime Minister) and he himself would not contest the polls. The BJP general secretary and party spokesperson, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, indicated that the decision was part of the strategy to allow them to move around the State freely and campaign "everywhere" instead of being tied down to their constituencies.

However, the Leader of the Opposition, Nand Kumar Sai, BJP's chief tribal leader, will seek re-election from Tapkara, a reserved tribal seat.

Other party sources disclosed that one of the senior State leaders would be asked to contest against the Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi. The person who would challenge Mr. Jogi would depend on the constituency from where he would decide to contest.

A senior BJP leader has already hinted that Mr. Judev could be the party's choice for Chief Minister but the party has refrained from declaring this as it fears that the Congress would unleash a tribal versus non-tribal campaign.

Mr. Judev, who was wearing an olive green shirt and trousers — almost like a military uniform — was quite uninhibited when he affirmed that religious conversions would be a main issue in the State.

"Mr. Jogi was sent here as Chief Minister to help spread Christianity, to help those who are engaged in conversion of tribals... if our party comes to power, we will stop all that, and within a week `ghar vapasi' (home-coming) programmes will be started to bring back to the Hindu fold those who had been converted,'' Mr. Judev said.

"Lakhs of Hindus are cutting their `chotis' (length of hair) and are hanging crosses instead... I will stop that.'' And then, ironically, he told some reporters that when he was installed as a Union Minister, the Prime Minister had warned him: "Apni vani par sayam rakhen (keep control over what you say)."

The BJP's list of 72 includes 21 of the 22 sitting MLAs. One legislator was not re-nominated as he was not well, Mr. Naqvi said. The list has five women candidates, nine Scheduled Caste and 28 Scheduled Tribe candidates. Two of the ST candidates will contest from the general category seats — Shakuntala Singh from Pamgarh and Pritam Singh Diwan from Khallari.

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