By IANS,
Raipur: Tarachand Sahu, a former four-time Lok Sabha member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Chhattisgarh, filed his nomination papers Wednesday for an assembly by-poll as an Independent.
The poll for the Vaishali Nagar seat is to be held Nov 7. Sahu was expelled from the BJP in January on charges of anti-party activities.
The by-poll was necessitated after BJP legislator Saroj Pandey was elected to the Lok Sabha in May.
Sahu, considered an influential leader in the dominant other backward classes (OBC) community that forms some 50 percent of the state’s 20 million-plus population, filed papers at Durg town.
Sahu will take on the state’s ruling BJP candidate Jogeshwar Sahu, who too filed his nomination papers Wednesday. The Congress has fielded Bhajan Singh Nirankari for the by-poll.