All 72 candidates of the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday filed their nominations simultaneously for the second phase of Chhattisgarh assembly polls in their respective district headquarters.
In the state capital here, the nominees, including two ministers and two sitting MLAs, from all the seven Assembly segments of Raipur district, took out a massive rally from the BJP's city officer Ekatma Parisar to the office of the Raipur collectorate.
They were accompanied by a large number of leaders and workers of the BJP.
In Raipur, Minister Brijmohan Agrawal from Raipur city south, minister Rajesh Munat from Raipur city west, Srichand Sundrani from Raipur city north, Nand Kumar Sahu from Raipur rural, Sanjay Didhi from Arang and former state minister Chandrashekhar Sahu from Abhanpur filed their nominations.
In Bilaspur district, Chief Minister Raman Singh and Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das accompanied incumbent minister Amar Agrawal (candidate from Bilaspur constituency), party's state chief Dharamlal Kaushik (Bilha) and other party candidates when they filed their papers.
The BJP which has been in power since 2003 in the state, has set a target to win 65 plus seats this time.
The assembly elections for all 90 seats in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases on November 12 and November 20, respectively.
While 18 constituencies in 8 naxal-affected districts will witness polling in the first phase the rest 72 seats will go to polls in the second phase.
November 2 is the last date for filing of nominations for the second phass. The last date for withdrawal is November 5.
The counting of votes will be heldon December 11.
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