Raipur

Raipur is the capital of the newly formed state. This district is administratively divided into 13 tehsils and 15 revenue blocks. It comprises two Lok Sabha Constituencies – Raipur and Mahasamund and 13 Vidhansabha constituencies.
This capital city continues to be the nerve centre of politics the way it was the stronghold of power in ancient times.

It was once considered the stronghold of Congress till it fell to the Opposition for the first time during the Janata wave in 1977.

Once again Congress came back to power in Raipur with its candidate Swaroop Chand Jain defeating Balubhai Patel of BJP by a margin of 13,166 votes in 1980. The winning streak of Congress continued for another term when Swaroop Chand Jain of Congress again came to power by defeating BJP candidate Virendra Pandey and this time by a margin of 18,894 votes.

However, since 1990 the Raipur seat has become jinxed for the Congress and is rather proving to be a stronghold of BJP with each successive assembly elections. Since 1990, Brijmohan Agrawal of BJP has made the Congress candidates bite dust by maintaining his victory. Diagramatical representation of his win an seen:

This time BJP strongman Brijmohan Agrawal will be seeking re-election for the fourth time in succession.

Apart from Congress and BJP— BSP is also a force to be reckoned with because of its vote-base among the Satnami community and its candidates in the last two elections has managed to secure a large number of votes.

Besides, Satnamis, Scheduled Castes constitute 16 per cent of the population while Muslims constitute two per cent population. Telis for a sizeable 10 per cent while Ahirs 15 per cent of the total population. Kewats, Kurmis and Malis represent five per cent each of the population. Durg

Durg district is a populous district of Chhattisgarh. The district is divided into six sub-divisions, 11 tehsils and 12 blocks. It occupies the south-western part of the Chhattisgarh plain and possesses belts of hilly country in the south, southwest and north-west, bestowed with mineral resources and forests.

This district is basically known as the home constituency of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Motilal Vohra. Vohra has won a record five consecutive times from Durg in the 1972, 1977, 1980, 1985 and 1990 assembly elections.

After his election to the Lok Sabha from Rajnandgaon seat, the party fielded his son Arun Vohra in 1993, in which he defeated BJP’s Hemchand Yadav by 17,120 votes. However, in 1998 Hemchand Yadav avenged his defeat of 1993 by beating Arun Vohra by slim margin of 3, 279 votes.

Dantewada

Dantewada is one constituency that is inhabited by several tribal groups. The most interesting fact from the poll point of view is that the population here has voted against the Congress right from 1967. In fact only thrice has a Congress candidate been able to win from here.

Dantewada, is the neighbouring district of Bastar and lies about 82 kms away from the district headquarters of Jagdalpur. The ancient and historical temple of Goddess Danteshwari is situated at Dantewada. Barsur is another historical place in Dantewada district where many archaeological remains of the past can be seen. There are two wildlife sanctuaries Bhairamgarh and Pamed in Dantewada district. Dantewada is rich in its cultural heritage. Dantewada has its own dance styles, cuisine, music and traditional folk songs in which sohar song, bihav song and Pathoni songs are very famous.

Dantewada has its own dance styles, cuisine and music. Pandwani the musical narration of the epic Mahabharata, "Raut Nacha" (The folk dance of cowherds), the Karma, the Panthi and Soowa dance styles are very popular in the region. Teejan Bai ,the Pandwani artist was awarded Padmashree for her contribution to this dance style. Ritu Verma is also a well known name.

Mahendra Karma the Congress leader who represents Dantewara presently was a Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and had won once on a CPI ticket. Karma by virtue of his clout has also made it to Ajit Jogi`s cabinet.
Dongargaon
Former Dongargarh ruler Geeta Devi Singh, seeking votes for the fourth consecutive term as a Congress candidate from Dongargaon assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh, has forgotten her past status of a "Huzur" or "Rani" as she is literally "begging" for votes.

Likewise, Kawardha "Yuvraj" Yogiraj Yogeshwar Singh, trying to retain traditional seat (Kawardha) of his grandfather and parents, is visiting weekly "haats" to keep his voters in good humour. His mother, Rani Shashiprabha Devi, who represented this seat in the MP assembly, is working hard for her son`s victory as a Congress candidate.