Raipur: A total of 77 nominations were filed yesterday for the second phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, which featured school education minister Brijmohan Agrawal and three sitting MLAs.
Seventy-two constituencies of 16 districts will go to polls on November 19, for which 153 nominations have been filed so far.
On Tuesday, 77 nominations were filed, an electoral officer told reporters yesterday evening.
Minister Brijmohan Agrawal who filed his nomination from Raipur City South, BJP MLAs Siddhnath Paikra (Samri), Omprakash Rathiya (Dharamjaigarh) and Congress MLA Haridas Bhardwaj (Saraipali) are prominent among those who filed their nominations today.
Agrawal had won the Raipur South City seat against Congress candidate Yogesh Tiwari by 24,939 votes during the 2008 election.
The opposition Congress has fielded Raipur Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak from this seat.
Sitting MLAs Paikra and Rathiya were retained from Samri and Dharamjaigarh seat.
In a previous election, Paikra had defeated Chintamani Maharaj of Congress with a margin of 30,498 votes, while the latter has been given another chance by the opposition. Similarly, Omprakash Rathiya had won the Dharamjaigarh seat against Chanesh Ram Rathiya of the Congress by 3,367 votes.
Congress nominee from Saraipali, Haridas Bhardwaj had previously won the seat against BJP's Neera Chouhan by 16,222 votes.
Other candidates who filed nominations include Jogesh Lamba (Korba), Lakhanlal Dewangan (Katghora), Dinesh Singh (Akaltara), Ambesh Jangde (Pamgarh) from BJP and Anil Bhedia (Daundi Lohara) from Congress.
