Akash Sharma Congress Candidate for Assembly bypoll

Raipur | Correspondent: The Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday approved Akash Sharma as the Congress candidate for the by election to the Raipur South.

Sharma would be representing Raipur City South Constituency for the party against the BJP representative Sunil Soni.

Akash Sharma is the current state president of the Chhattisgarh Youth Congress and will contest in the assembly elections for the first time.

The state Congress sent a panel of two names to the high command, which included Pramod Dubey and Akash Sharma.

Voting for the Raipur City South Assembly will take place on November 13 while counting of the votes would be done in November 23.

The Raipur South seat became vacant after BJP MLA Brijmohan Agarwal was elected as an MP.

Political experts believe that introducing a young candidate like Sharma could be advantageous for Congress in the Raipur City South seat, which is regarded as a BJP stronghold.

BJP stronghold faces by-poll challenge

The BJP has been winning the Raipur City South Constituency since the year 1990, which was held by the party’s prominent leader, Brijmohan Agrawal.

An eight-term legislator, has remained undefeated in assembly elections.

He was nominated by the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls and was elected as an MP for the first time.

In the previous year’s assembly elections, the BJP achieved a significant victory, securing 54 out of 90 seats in the state, while the Congress won 35 seats and the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) claimed one seat.