The Central Election Committee of Congress on Friday has finalized the names of the candidates going to contest the election in the 1st phase of the polls. According to sources, members of the CEC met on Friday to deliberate on party candidates for the first phase of polling on November 12.
The committee chaired by party president Rahul Gandhi listed names of 17 candidates out of 18 seats. The names will perhaps be disclosed in a day or two.
However, the party has not yet decided the candidate for Rajnandgaon, the constituency of CM Raman Singh. The Congress is seeking to topple the Raman Singh government who is in power since 2003 in the state. The 18 constituencies of the state which will go to polls in first phase are mostly Maoist hit areas.
The process of filing nomination for the first phase will start on October 16 with the issuance of a gazette notification. The last date for filing nominations is October 23 and scrutiny would be completed by the next day. Withdrawal of candidatures can be allowed till October 26 for the first phase.
The gazette notification for the second phase will be issued on October 26 while the last date to file nominations will be November 2 and scrutiny will be completed by the next day.
Candidates can withdraw their nominations till November 5 after which 72 constituencies would go to polls on November 20.
According to the Election Commission, there are total 1,85,45,819 voters including 92,95,301 men, 92,49,459 women and 1,059 third-gender voters in the state. The state has 23,632 polling booths, out of which 19,240 are in rural and 4,392 in urban areas.