Raipur: Abhishek Singh, the son of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, an MLA and former minister Vikram were prominent among 12 candidates who filed their nominations on Monday for the Lok Sabha elections.
Accompanied by his father and mother Veena Singh, Abhishek Singh Raman, a BJP nominee, filed his nomination papers from Maoist-affected Rajnandgaon constituency in the presence of BJP leaders and supporters.
Raman Singh had also represented this constituency as once earlier, He is now a legislator from Rajnandgaon assembly seat.
BJP has refused a ticket this time to its sitting Member of Parliament Madhusudan Yadav from Rajnandgaon seat and chosen Abhishek as its candidate.
After his son filed his nomination, Raman Singh addressed a public meeting appealing to the people to ensure his son`s victory.
He said BJP`s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi`s "wave" can be felt all across the country and expressed confidence that his party would form the government at the Centre.
Bahujan Samaj Party`s (BSP) Anand Ram Sahu, Samajwadi Party`s (SP) Seema Kaushik and Communist Party of India`s (CPI) Kadamchand Lalwani were others who filed their nomination from this seat, an electoral official said.
Noted poet and Aam Aadmi Party candidate Laxman Masturiya, Apna Dal`s Sridhar Chandrakar and independent candidate Shankar Ratre filed their nomination papers from the Mahasamund Lok Sabha constituency.
Three-time BJP MLA Vikram Usendi filed his nomination for Kanker seat while Congress nominee Phulo Devi Netam also filed her nomination for this seat.
BSP`s Ram Sai Korram was among others who filed their
nominations from Kanker, the official said.
Chhattisgarh would see a three-phased polling for its 11 parliamentary constituencies next month.
Maoist-hit Bastar (ST) constituency alone would witness polling on April 10, while three other Maoist-hit constituencies like Mahasamund (Gen), Kanker (ST) and Rajnandgaon (Gen) would go to polls on April 17.
The rest of the seven Lok Sabha seats Surguja and Raigarh (ST), Janjgir-Champa (SC) Raipur, Durg, Korba and Bilaspur (Gen) would have polling on April 24.
As per the official, the final date for filing nominations for Mahasamund, Kanker and Rajnandgaon has been scheduled on March 26, while scrutiny of nominations would be completed on March 27 and contestants could withdraw their name until March 29.
After scrutiny of nomination papers for Bastar today, a total of eight candidates are left in the fray for this seat going to polls on April 10, the official said.
However, he said contestants from Bastar seat could withdraw their name until March 26.
The sitting MLA and BJP candidate Dinesh Kashyap, the son of former leader of the opposition late Mahendra Karma, Deepak Karma, and tribal activist Soni Sori are among eight candidates who have filed nominations from Bastar.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha poll, 10 seats were won by BJP while Congress had managed only one.
This time, once again the key contest would be between ruling BJP and Congress.
