The Congress party surges ahead of the ruling BJP in Chhattisgarh as votes were counting is on way. BJP’s Raman Singh, three-term Chief Minister Raman Singh was briefly trailing in his constituency, but is now leading.
As the Congress party widens the gap with the BJP in Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh was locked in a tough fight in Rajnandgaon seat, where his rival is Congress’s Karuna Shukla, the niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Raman Singh is the longest-serving chief minister of the BJP, three years more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure as Gujarat chief minister and two years more than Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s years in power in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
Raman Singh won from the same seat by a margin of 36,000 votes, in 2013.
Former chief minister Ajit Jogi’s Chhattisgarh Janata Congress which is in alliance with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), appeared to make little impact on the Congress’s votes.
Apparently, the BJP is seeking a fourth straight term in office whereas the Congress is aiming to return after 15 years out of power in the largely tribal state.
Notably, in the 2013 elections, the BJP had won 49 seats, the Congress 39, while one seat each was bagged by the BSP and an Independent.