In the battle for the high-profile Ambikapur seat in North Chhattisgarh, all eyes are on senior Congress leader and Deputy Chief Minister T S Singhdev. The 71-year-old Maharaja of the former Surguja royal family is known for his humility and maintaining political decorum and dignity. He is believed to have influence over most of the 14 assembly constituencies in the Surguja region, from where the Congress won all the seats in the 2018 assembly elections.
The three-time MLA is contesting from his traditional seat for the fourth consecutive time, while the BJP has fielded former Nagar Panchayat president and Lakhanpur area resident Rajesh Aggarwal, who was once close to the Congress leader.
It is said that former Lakhanpur Nagar Panchayat President Rajesh Aggarwal has influence among the rural voters of Ambikapur and he is fighting the election for the first time. He is pitted against the veteran Congress leader, who was once his mentor in the party.
The BJP candidate has focused on the issue of ‘lack of development work’ in Ambikapur, while Singhdev has made his work in the last five years an issue. Voting is taking place for this seat on Friday and again Singhdev is trying his best to win.
Not being made CM became an issue
The main topic of discussion in the constituency was why the Maharaja could not get the top post of Chief Minister despite having the said formula? There was talk of the Baghel government taking over the post of Chief Minister by rotation after completing half its tenure.
Shortly after the Congress got majority in the elections, others wonder why he backed out of the two-and-a-half year long ‘fight for justice’ at the last moment and accepted to become the Deputy CM just three months before the elections.
T S Singhdev, the 118th Maharaja of Surguja state, has been winning the assembly elections continuously since 2008. In the 2018 elections, TS Singhdev defeated BJP’s Anurag Singhdev by a huge margin of about 40,000 votes.
TS Singhdev in the election field from Ambikapur on the fourth day
Political analysts say that bridging this gap is a difficult task for the BJP. However, local BJP leaders said that their candidate Rajesh Aggarwal is from Lakhanpur/Udaipur and he has continuously attacked Singhdev during the election campaign.
Ambikapur seat was declared unreserved after delimitation in the year 2008 and TS Singhdev has been winning from here for the last 3 elections, although in the 2008 elections, TS Singhdev had a margin of only 980 votes from BJP’s Anurag Singhdev. Could win with.
TS Singhdev defeated Anurag Singh Dev by 19,598 votes in the 2013 elections. In the year 2018 also he scored a hat-trick with another big win.
BJP has made Rajesh Aggarwal its candidate
This time in the assembly elections, BJP has fielded Rajesh Aggarwal in place of Anurag Singh Dev, who has contested thrice from Ambikapur assembly seat. In the last election, Anurag Singh Dev had lost the election against TS Singhdev. TS Singhdev is a three-time MLA from this assembly seat.
Over 2.56 lakh voters, including 1.29 lakh women, are in the constituency, where there are 13 candidates, including regional party JCC (J). Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) and others are trying their electoral luck.
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