Royal failure: Seven candidates of Congress, BJP, AAP lose turf in Chhattisgarh

Raipur: For the first since the formation of Chhattisgarh in 2000, the new assembly will not have any MLA belonging to erstwhile royal families as all seven candidates fielded by Congress, BJP, and AAP bit dust.

Prominent among the royals to lose the turf was senior Congress leader and outgoing deputy chief minister TS Singhdeo.

Among the seven royals, the Congress and BJP had fielded three candidates each and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) one. They are TS Singh Deo, Ambica Singhdeo, and Devendra Bahadur Singh (all from Congress), and Sanyogita Singh Judev, Prabal Pratap Singh Judev, and Sanjeev Shah of BJP.

These three candidates of the Congress were MLAs in the outgoing assembly.

Notably, the Chhattisgarh legislative assembly always had members from erstwhile royal families in all five terms since the state was formed in 2000.

TS Singhdeo, the scion of the Surguja family, lost his Ambikapur seat by a slender margin of 94 votes against BJP's Rajesh Agrawal. Notably, Agrawal had joined the saffron party in 2018 after quitting Congress.

Singhdeo, considered as a contender for the chief minister's post after the 2018 elections which voted Congress to power, had served as an MLA for three consecutive terms in 2008, 2013 and 2018.

His family wields influence in the Surguja division in north Chhattisgarh. While all 14 assembly segments in this region were won by Congress in the 2018 elections, the BJP turned the tables this time by winning these seats.

Another blue-blood Congress candidate from the Surguja region, Ambica Singhdeo, lost her Baikunthpur seat by 25,413 votes to BJP's Bhaiyalal Rajwade whom she had defeated in the 2018 elections.

Ambica Singhdeo belongs to the royal family of Koriya which has been active in state politics for a long time. A member of this family, Ramchandra Singhdeo, had served as the first finance minister of Chhattisgarh under the Ajit Jogi-led Congress government.

Congress leader Devendra Bahadur Singh (63), a member of the erstwhile Gond royal family of Phuljhar (now in Mahasamund district), was trounced by BJP's Sampat Agrawal by 36,793 votes in the Basna constituency.

Singh, a four-term MLA, had served as a minister of state in the Ajit Jogi-led cabinet from 2000-2003.

Among three erstwhile royals from BJP who suffered defeat this time were two members of the influential Judev royal family of Jashpur in the Surguja division. BJP stalwart late Dilip Singh Judev belonged to this family.

The late Judev's father Vijay Bhushan Judev, who was king of the Jashpur royal family, had also served as a Lok Sabha member. Dilip Singh was Minister of State for Environment and Forests in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government at the Centre.

His son Yudhveer Singh Judev had been a two-time legislator from Chandrapur seat which falls in the adjoining Bilaspur division. Yudhveer's wife Sanyogita Singh has suffered defeat for the second time on the trot from the Chandrapur seat.

She was defeated by Congress' Ramkumar Yadav by a margin of 15,976 votes. Notably, Yadav had trounced Sanyogita Singh in the 2018 assembly elections as well.

Dilip Singh Judev's other son Prabal Pratap Singh Judev fell aside in the contest from the Kota seat (Bilaspur district) against Congress' Atal Shrivastav by 7,957 votes.

Former MLA, Sanjeev Shah, the scion of the erstwhile Nagvanshi Gond royal family from Ambagarh Chowki, was fielded by BJP from the Mohla-Manpur assembly constituency reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates in the Naxal-hit Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district.

On Sunday, Shah lost by 31,741 votes against sitting Congress MLA Indrashah Mandavi from the Mohla-Manpur segment.

In Kota, former chief minister Ajit Jogi's wife Renu Jogi, the sitting MLA from Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J), stood at a third position this time with 8,884 votes.

The AAP had fielded Khadgraj Singh, a member of Lohara riyasat, from the Kawardha segment. However, he could secure just 6,334 votes and ended up in the third position.

In Kawardha, BJP's Vijay Sharma defeated Congress leader and state minister Mohamad Akbar by 39,592 votes.

In the keenly-fought contest, the BJP registered a massive victory in Chhattisgarh polls by winning 54 seats in the 90-member House, decimating the Congress tally to 35; one seat was won by the Gondwana Gantantra Party.

Inputs from PTI