The BJP will change all its 10 sitting MPs in Chhattisgarh, party General Secretary and state in charge Anil Jain said on Tuesday.
"We will bring 11 new candidates and win on all 11 seats. This has been approved by the party's Central Election Committee," Jain told reporters even as the meeting of the CEC, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was underway at the BJP headquarters.
The decision to drop all sitting MPs comes in the wake of BJP's drubbing in the state in the November Assembly polls after 15 years of rule under Raman Singh and is seen as an attempt to beat antiincumbency against the sitting parliamentarians.
Among the sitting MPs, Dinesh Kashyap is from Bastar, Lakhan Lal Sahu from Bilaspur, Kamla Devi Patle from Janjgir-Champa (SC), Vikram Usendi from Kanker (ST), Banshilal Mahto from Korba, Chandulal Sahu from Mahasamund, Vishnu Deo Sai from Raigarh (ST), Ramesh Bais from Raipur, Abhishek Singh from Rajnandgaon and Kamalbhan Singh from Surguja (ST).
BJP's Saroj Pande had lost the Durg seat in 2009 to Congress leader Tamradwaj Sahu while its other ten candidates won. Sahu, who was the Congress state unit chief, later resigned from the seat to contest the Assembly polls. The Durg seat is vacant since November.
--IANS
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