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Setting aside all speculations of his changing seat in the ensuing state polls, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh made it clear that he would contest the election from Rajnandgaon that he had been representing.
“Why there is a suspicion that I will not contest from Rajnandgaon,” Singh said at a function in his home assembly constituency—about 80 km from here. Where can he find a better assembly seat than Rajnandgaon, the chief minister cleared, putting an end to the speculation of his assembly seat.
What made the speculations substantiating was Singh’s constant changing of assembly constituency. In 2003 when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trounced Congress to form the government, Raman Singh was not the member of Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly though he was elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party.
His then trusted associate Pradeep Gandhi vacated the Dongargaon assembly seat in the same district from where Singh contested the election and won by a margin of around 10,000 votes. In the 2008 state polls, Singh changed his assembly constituency and contested from Rajnandgaon and won by a margin of 24,000 votes.
In the political circle, the rumour was that the chief minister might change the seat in the November 2013 state polls. “But it would not give a good message in the state and the chief minister would contest from the same assembly constituency,” a senior functionary in the party organization had earlier told Business Standard.
Now, Singh had himself confirmed that he would contest from Rajnandgaon only. “The assembly constituency cannot be changed constantly and I will fight the election from Rajnandgaon only,” he added.
The sticky scene in Singh’s political pitch was created after the Darba ghat Naxal ambush on the Congress convey on May 25 that killed party’s key leaders. The victims included Uday Mudaliar, the former legislator and the Congress candidate who had contested against the chief minister from Rajnandgaon in the last assembly poll.
The reports of Mudaliar’s family member contesting the ensuing assembly election from Rajnandgaon to ride on sympathy waves had changed the political equations in the constituency
