Chhattisgarh Assembly By-elections: Moderate Polling in Raipur City South Seat
Raipur: By-polls to the Raipur City Assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh, which witnessed moderate polling on Wednesday, holds significance for the chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai considering the fact that it is the first election in his 11-month-old tenure.
The by-election has recorded voters’ turnout of around 46.43 percent by five pm, sources in the chief electoral officer’s office here said.
“The by-election has passed off peacefully”, sources said.
The ruling BJP has made the performance of the Vishnu Deo Sai government in the last eleven months particularly the implementation of various welfare schemes including the Rs 1,000 per month incentive for women, a major poll plank to retain the seat.
The seat, held by the BJP for the last 34 years, has fallen vacant when the sitting MLA and veteran saffron leader Brij Mohan Agrawal was elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent elections.
Mr Agrawal has been winning from the seat since 1990 making it an impregnable fort for BJP.
For the first time in 34 years, BJP has fielded a new candidate Sunil Kumar Soni, a former MP from Raipur LS seat, in the seat in this by-poll following election of Mr Agrawal to the LS.
“The Vishnu Deo Sai government has provided good governance. We are banking on the performance of our government in the state particularly the implementation of pro-poor and pro-women schemes to retain the seat in the by-elections”, BJP spokesman Anurag Agrawal said.
Congress has fielded the state youth wing president of the party Akash Sharma to take on Mr Soni in a multi-cornered contest in the seat.
A senior Congress leader said that the party eyed around 40,000-strong Brahmin votes by fielding Mr Sharma, a Brahmin, in the by-elections in the constituency.
Besides, the party was trying hard to woo 25,000 Muslim voters and 12,000 dalit voters to support the Congress candidate in the by-elections, he added.
Mr Agrawal had won the seat in the last Assembly polls by a record margin of 1.09 lakh votes.
