Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to campaign in Chhattisgarh for two days

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, for the upcoming two days, will be campaigning in poll-bound Chhattisgarh.

As per the sources, Rahul Gandhi will address rallies in Kanker, Rajnandgaon, and Bhanupratapur on October 28. He will also address a rally on October 29 in Kawardha.

The Congress has fielded Shankar Dhruv from the Kanker (ST) seat which is reserved for Scheduled Tribes, it has fielded Girish Devangan from Rajnandgaon and Savitri Mandavi from the reserved constituency of Bhanupratappur(ST).

Chhattisgarh's lone Muslim minister in the Bhupesh Baghel cabinet Mohamad Akbar is the Congress candidate from Kawardha. The Minister was the subject of an all-out attack by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during a campaign rally in Kawardha.

"When one Akbar arrives in a particular location, he brings along a hundred Akbars. Therefore, it is crucial to remove him swiftly, or else the sanctity of Mata Kaushalya's land will be compromised", he said addressing the election rally.

In response, the Congress had complained to the Election Commission alleging that the speech had communal undertones.

Following this, the EC issued a show-cause notice to Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The Election Commission in the show-cause notice mentioned that certain parts of Himanta Biswa Sarma's speech on October 18 have been found to be "prima facia violative". The first phase of polling for 20 seats in Chhattisgarh will be held on November 7.

After the first phase of polling on November 7, the remaining 70 seats in the state will go to polls on November 17. The counting of votes will be done on December 3.

Elections in Chhattisgarh will be contested on 90 assembly seats and both the major contenders in the State, BJP and Congress, have released their final list of all 90 candidates in the State.

The ruling party in the state, Congress, has fielded leaders like Ambica Singh Deo from Baikunthpur, Chaturi Nand from Saraipali, Ambina Markam from Sihawa and Omkar Sahu from Dhamtari. Also, Congress fielded Mahant Ram Sundar Das from Raipur South City Assembly seat against BJP stalwart Brijmohan Agrawal.

On the other hand, BJP's first list of 21 candidates included Lok Sabha MP Vijay Baghel, who has been fielded against Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in Patan in Durg district.

The party's final list had four candidates including Sushant Shukla from Beltara, Dhaniram Dhivar from Kasdol, and Dipesh Sahu from Bemetara.

In the last assembly polls in 2018, the Congress recorded a landslide mandate, winning 68 seats of the 90 seats while the BJP finished a distant second at just 15 seats.