'Royal' Congress MP faces tough contest from newcomer

Raipur, March 25 (IANS) Devwrat Singh, a Congress MP in Chhattisgarh who boasts of blue blood, faces a tough task retaining his Rajnandgaon seat even though the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded a completely unknown face.

BJP has put up Madhusudan Yadav and he is said to be a strong contender because he is a close aide of Chief Minister Raman Singh.

'The BJP nominee is surely a newcomer in politics but he enjoys the strong personal support of Chief Minister Raman Singh and I rate the contest more interesting and unpredictable than the 2007 by-poll when I defeated BJP's state-level experienced politician, Leelaram Bhojwani, by about 50,000 votes,' said Devwrat Singh, who belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Khairagarh.

The 40-year-old Congress MP was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha in April 2007 in a by-poll necessitated after then BJP MP Pradeep Gandhi was expelled as he was among 11 MPs caught on camera accepting money in return for posing questions in parliament in 2005.

BJP leaders here say that most party members too don't recognise Yadav as his work is confined to the ward level in Rajnandgaon town, but predict he will prevail over the sitting MP as he is usually described as the 'chief minister's man' in a constituency where Raman Singh has a lot of influence.

The chief minister represents the Rajnandgaon assembly seat that is one of the eight assembly constituencies forming the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat.