Chhattisgarh polls: Day after resigning from Congress, Ghanaram Sahu joins BJP

Raipur: Former Chhattisgarh Congress vice president Ghanaram Sahu on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in presence of party chief Amit Shah. 

On Sunday, Sahu resigned from the membership of the Congress party. His move came barely hours ahead of the first phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly polls.

The 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly is scheduled to go to polls in two phases - on November 12 and November 20 while the results will be announced on December 11.

The first phase of polls on Monday covered 18 constituencies of eight Naxal-affected districts that include Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, Kondagaon and Rajnandgaon. Of these, 12 are Scheduled Tribe seats while one is a Scheduled Caste-reserved seat.

The campaigning for the first phase of elections ended on Saturday.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had lost 12 of the 18 seats.

The remaining 72 constituencies will witness polling on November 20.

A total of 1,291 candidates are in the fray for the two-phased state polls. In the 2013 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 49 seats, Congress 39, BSP 1 and Independent 1 in the 90-member House.