BJP will win 55 seats in Chhattisgarh: Raman Singh

Raipur, Nov 19 (IANS) Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said Wednesday that his party will win at least 55 seats in the state assembly out of the total 90.

Addressing a press conference just before the final round of polling for 51 seats scheduled Thursday, Singh said: 'The opposition Congress did not raise the basic issues such as water, electricity, development and infrastructure throughout the campaigning.'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 52 members in the outgoing assembly, the Congress 34 and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have one member each. Two seats are vacant. Voting was held for 39 seats Nov 14 in the first phase. Results will be out Dec 8.

'The only issue raked up by the Congress leaders was about Rs.80 billion annual funding to the state by the central government,' Singh stated.

'This amount was the share of the state and the BJP government made good use of the central fund,' he said. Instead of telling the voters how inflation shot up during the Congress rule at the Centre, the party accused the BJP of corruption, Singh said.

Asked about the rising graph of BSP in the state, Singh said: 'The BSP's poll percentage may go up this election but it will hardly gain anything in terms of seats; it will damage the Congress more than us.' BSP is contesting all the 90 seats on its own for the first time.