RAIPUR, Jan 27: The opposition Congress on Monday announced its candidates for all the 10 mayoral posts in Chhattisgarh, the elections for which will be held along with the other urban bodies in the state next month.
Incumbent mayors Dr Ajay Tirkey and Janki Katju have been fielded from Ambikapur and Raigarh, respectively, former MLA Dr Vinay Jaiswal from Chirmiri, Dipti Pramod Dubey from Raipur, Premlata Poshan Sahu from Durg, Pramod Nayak from Bilaspur and Usha Tiwari from Korba.
Congress state unit in-charge general secretary (organisation and administration) Malkeet Singh Gaindu is the party’s candidate for the mayor’s post in Jagdalpur, Nikhil Dwivedi in Rajnandgaon and Vijay Golchha in Dhamtari.
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Gaindu released the list of candidates following approval from the party’s state election committee in the morning.
Tirkey, the two-term mayor of the Ambikapur Municipal Corporation, won the post for the first time in 2014-15.
The Congress fielded him in the 2023 assembly election from Ramanujganj seat where he suffered defeat.
Vinay Jaiswal served as an MLA from Manendragarh seat in the previous state assembly (2018-2023). His wife Kanchan Jaiswal is currently mayor of the Chirmiri Municipal Corporation.
Dipti Dubey, who has been fielded for the Raipur Municipal Corporation mayor’s post, is the wife of former mayor and incumbent chairman of the civic body, Pramod Dubey.
Premlata Poshan Sahu is a former two-term corporator from Durg.
The party also announced candidates for the posts of chairpersons to 40 municipal councils and 102 nagar panchayats.
On Sunday, the ruling BJP in the state declared candidates for all the 10 mayoral posts.
Elections to 173 civic bodies, comprising 10 municipal corporations, 49 municipal councils and 114 nagar panchayats, will be held in a single phase on February 11, while the three-tier panchayat elections would be conducted in three phases on February 17, 20 and 23.
In the last urban body polls held in 2019-2020, the then ruling Congress in the state got mayoral posts in all the 10 municipal corporations.
Last time, the mayoral polls were held in an indirect manner – with the public directly electing corporators and the latter then electing mayor.
The indirect method was introduced in 2019 by then Bhupesh Baghel government.
This time, the Vishnu Deo Sai government has restored the previous system under which people will directly vote for electing the mayors. (PTI)
