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Congress wrests Rajnandgaon seat

A major jolt to BJP in Chhattisgarh

Raipur: In a jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Chhattisgarh, the party on Sunday lost the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat to main Opposition Congress in a by-election.

Devwrat Singh of Congress defeated BJP's Leelaram Bhojwani by a margin of about 50,000 votes, election office sources told PTI from Rajnandgaon.

Mr. Singh is the sitting Congress MLA from Khairagarh and a former State Youth Congress president. A total of 15 candidates were in the fray, but it was a straight fight between the BJP and the Congress.

Pradeep Gandhi of BJP had won the 2004 election from Rajnandgaon. The by-election was necessitated after he was caught in the cash-for-query scam and lost his Lok Sabha membership.

The result of the by-election held on Thursday came as a setback to Chief Minister Raman Singh, as he had earlier represented Rajnandgaon in Lok Sabha. He gave up the seat to enter the Assembly after he was chosen as the Chief Minister.

The BJP lost in six of the eight Assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency, including Dongargaon, which is represented by the Chief Minister.

Talking to reporters after the result was declared, Mr. Bhojwani said he lost the by-poll due to the impact of the cash-for-query scam on the electorate. -- PTI

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