Raipur. Senior BJP leader and state minister Brijmohan Agrawal is leading by more than five lakh votes from Chhattisgarh’s Raipur seat over his nearest rival and Congress’ Vikas Upadhyay. In the trends so far in the state, BJP is maintaining an impressive lead in 10 out of 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Counting of votes began at 33 centers in the state at 8 am on Tuesday. In the first half an hour, postal ballots were counted and later counting of EVM votes began.
According to the information received from the Election Commission, BJP candidate from Raipur seat Brijmohan Agarwal has so far received 10,03,311 votes and is leading by a margin of 5,46,195 votes over Upadhyay of Congress. Similarly, in Durg seat, BJP’s sitting MP Vijay Baghel is leading by 4,30,978 votes over his nearest rival and Congress’ Rajendra Sahu.
In the crucial Rajnandgaon seat, Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel is trailing BJP’s sitting MP Santosh Pandey by 44,621 votes. In the Naxal-affected Bastar seat (reserved for scheduled tribes), BJP’s Mahesh Kashyap is leading by 55,078 votes over Congress’s firebrand leader Kawasi Lakhma.
BJP candidate and former MLA Tokhan Sahu is leading by 1,49,653 votes over Congress candidate and current MLA Devendra Yadav on Bilaspur seat. Chintamani Maharaj, who left Congress and joined BJP before the last assembly elections, is leading by 64,822 votes over Congress’ Shashi Singh on the Scheduled Tribe reserved Surguja seat.
In tribal dominated Raigarh, BJP’s Radheshyam Rathia is leading by 2,40,180 votes over Congress’ Dr. Maneka Devi Singh. Maneka Singh belongs to the former royal family of Sarangarh. On Mahasamund seat, BJP’s Roopkumari Chaudhary is leading by 1,43,975 votes over Congress candidate and former minister Tamradhwaj Sahu. On Kanker seat, BJP candidate Bhojraj Nag is leading by 1884 votes over Congress’ Biresh Thakur.
In Janjgir-Champa (SC reserved) seat, BJP’s woman leader Kamlesh Jangde is leading by 55,902 votes over Congress candidate and former minister Shivkumar Dahria. Congress has managed to take lead only in Korba seat, where its sitting MP Jyotsna Mahant, wife of current opposition leader Charandas Mahant, is leading by 39,564 votes over BJP’s influential woman leader Saroj Pandey.