Raipur, May 16 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Karuna Shukla, the niece of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, lost the polls in Chhattisgarh as did the Congress’ star candidate in the state Renu Jogi, wife of former chief minister Ajit Jogi.
Shukla, the sitting MP from Janjgir Lok Sabha seat, who contested this time from a new seat Korba created following delimitation, lost to Congress state working president Charandas Mahant by a big margin.
Renu Jogi lost the Bilaspur seat to BJP’s flamboyant leader and former union minister Dilip Singh Judeo by a huge margin.
BJP’s candidate and former union minister Ramesh Bais is set to record his sixth straight victory from the prestigious Raipur seat as he has established a lead of over 50,000 votes over the Congress nominee Bhupesh Baghel after eight rounds of counting.
The BJP is comfortably placed to win the state’s lone seat reserved for the Scheduled Castes, Janjgir, besides all the four seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes candidates – Bastar, Kanker, Raigarh and Surguja.
The state has total 11 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP is heading for a win in 10 seats, the same number it won in the 2004 polls.