NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday declared Mrs Karuna Shukla (68), niece of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, as the party candidate to take on Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh from Rajnandgaon in the first phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections on November 12.
She was a BJP MP in the 14th Lok Sabha from Janjgir in Chhattisgarh. She defected to the Congress in 2013 after being in the BJP for 32 years. She lost the Bilaspur seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to BJP’s Lakhan Lal Sahu.
Former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, who has formed own party quitting Congress, was earlier planning to contest against Raman Singh but his son Amit announced last week that he would not contest the Assembly polls and instead campaign for the alliance of his party with BSP and CPI.
The Congress also announced candidates for the remaining five seats that go to polls on November 12. It had announced 12 candidates earlier last Thursday. The rival BJP has already announced 77 candidates to contest in the Chhattisgarh elections.
