Congress will win 55 seats in Chhattisgarh: Union minister

Bhopal: Union Minister of State for Agriculture and

chief Charandas Mahant on Saturday claimed his party would form the government in the state by winning 54-55 out of the total 90 assembly seats.

The polling in Chhattisgarh had taken place in two phases on November 11 and 19.

"Congress will get nearly 54-55 seats in Chhattisgarh this time, including at least six from Naxal-affected Bastar region where it had to be satisfied with just one seat in the 2008 assembly polls," Mahant told reporters after his arrival here for poll campaign.

"Because of rampant corruption of BJP government, its heavyweight ministers like Brijmohan Agrawal, Nankiram Kanwar and Rajesh Munat were unable to leave their respective constituencies during the polling as they were not confident of their victory," he alleged.

Mahant said rampant corruption has left the BJP govt under-confident.

Mahant claimed even Chief Minister Raman Singh is not completely sure about his victory and added the poll result in Naxal-affected Rajnandgaon district (from where Singh contested the election) would be very surprising.

Asked who would be the Chief Minister if Congress wins majority in the state, Mahant said Chhattisgarh Congress MLAs and the party high command would elect a leader. The major challenge before Congress is to fulfil the promises made by the party in its manifesto, he said.

Replying to a query, he said when Congress comes to power in Chhattisgarh, it would try to bring Naxals back to the mainstream.

PTI