Lok Sabha elections 2024: Raigarh to Bastar, key seats in Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh has 11 parliamentary constituencies where voting for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in three phases. The state will go to polls on April 19, April 26 and May 7, while the counting will be held on June 4.

During the 2019 general elections, the BJP won nine seats in the state and secured a 50.70% vote share, restricting the Congress to two seats with 40.91% votes.

After a resounding victory in last year's Assembly elections in the state -- where the BJP got 54 of the 90 seats -- the saffron party is looking forward to yet another dominating performance in Chhattisgarh this time as well. The Congress, meanwhile, is eyeing a comeback after a dismal outing in 2019

Here's a look at the key seat in Chhattisgarh for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections:

Raigarh

Reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, this seat in north Chhattisgarh is the home turf of Vishnu Deo Sai, who won it four times in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. Last time, the BJP fielded Gomti Sai, who defeated Congress candidate Laljeet Singh Rathia by 66,027 votes. While Gamti Sai was elected to the state Assembly last year, the BJP has this time fielded Radheshyam Rathiya from here.

Raipur

Yet another BJP stronghold since 1996, this urban Lok Sabha seat in central Chhattisgarh is currently represented by party MP Sunil Soni, who defeated Congress candidate Pramod Dubey by 3,48,238 votes in 2019. This time, the party has announced eight-time MLA Brijmohan Agrawal as its candidate. He is currently a minister in the Vishnu Deo Sai-led BJP government. Senior leader Ramesh Bais, who is now Maharashtra Governor, represented this seat seven times between 1989 and 2014.

The Congress party has fielded former MLA Vikas Upadhyay.

Bastar

Bastar, a Scheduled Tribes seat, falls in the Naxal-affected area of south Chhattisgarh. It is currently held by state Congress chief Dipak Baij, who is an influential tribal leader. In 2019, Baij defeated BJP candidate Baidu Ram Kashyap by 38,982 votes. The saffron party has this time nominated Mahesh Kashyap, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist and chief of its ST unit in Bastar district, from here.

Rajnandgaon

Rajnandgaon is among the high-profile seats in Chhattisgarh all set to witness a close contest between former chief minister and Congress candidate Bhupesh Baghel and BJP Santosh Pandey. The BJP candidate defeated Congress' Bholaram Sahu by over 1 lakh votes in the 2019 polls.

Rajnandgaon is the home turf of former CM and senior BJP leader Raman Singh.

Korba

Largely inhabited by tribal communities, this semi-urban seat is currently represented by Congress MP Jyotsana Mahant, wife of former Union Minister Charan Das Mahant.

In the 2019 general elections, Jyotsana defeated BJP candidate Jyoti Nand Dubey by over 26,000 votes. She will contest again from this seat on a Congress ticket, while the BJP has fielded Saroj Pandey, who earlier represented the party from the Durg seat.