Chhattisgarh BJP workers protest ticket for Judeo's son

Raipur, Oct 23 (IANS) Hundreds of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers took to the streets for the second consecutive day Thursday in Chhattisgarh to protest the nomination of senior party leader Dilip Singh Judeo's son for the assembly polls next month.

Judeo's son Yudhvir Singh has managed to get the party ticket for the Chandrapur seat in Janjgir district, but BJP activists there say 'the decision has been forced on them under Judeo's pressure and they would never accept him'.

The BJP released its first list of 78 candidates Tuesday. The state assembly has 90 seats. In the first list, the party deprived 18 sitting MLAs, including tribal minister Ganeshram Bhagat, and five parliamentary secretaries of tickets.

BJP sources said the party was surprised by the sudden outburst by locals at the Chandrapur segment.

The seat is currently held by the Nationalist Congress Party.

In another incident, about 200 supporters of Poonam Chandrakar, a sitting MLA from Mahasamund who was inducted as a minister in the Raman Singh cabinet in December 2003, stormed into the state party headquarters late Wednesday to protest the denial of nomination.

Angry supporters tried to ransack the party office but Raipur District Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar reached there immediately with police reinforcements and chased them away.

The state goes to polls in two phases on Nov 14 and 20.