Chintamani Maharaj, BJP's Lok Sabha Nominee From Surguja (Image: Facebook/Chintamani Maharaj)

Former Congress MLA Chintamani Maharaj”s name was also featured among the first list of 195 candidates announced by the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress leader joined the saffron party after being denied a ticket in the Chhattisgarh assembly polls. It is to be noted that the veteran politician was earlier in the BJP but later joined Congress in 2013.

Chintamani Maharaj is the son of social worker and religious leader late Sant Rameshwar Gahira Guru. In the 2013 Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, Chintamani Maharaj contested from the Lundra constituency and became an MLA for the first time. In that election, he secured a total of 64,771 votes, and the BJP candidate managed to get only 54,825 votes.

In the 2018 polls, Chintamani Maharaj registered a significant victory in the Samri Assembly constituency, which is regarded as the bastion of the BJP. On that occasion, he defeated BJP candidate Siddhnath Paikra by a margin of 21,923 votes. However, Congress denied the ticket to Chintamani Maharaj in the 2023 Assembly polls, and this forced the Congress legislator to return to the BJP.

The Surguja parliamentary seat is the stronghold of the BJP. In the 2019 polls, the BJP had defeated Congress by 1,57,873 votes. At the same time, Congress alleges the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had named him as a “beneficiary” in the coal levy scam, but after joining the BJP, he got a “clean chit”. According to a Deccan Herald report, Chhattisgarh”s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered a case in the alleged coal levy scam in January 2024 based on a letter by the ED. As per the letter, the former Congress leader had received a kickback of Rs 5 lakh, but he was not named as an accused in the Anti-Corruption Bureau”s FIR, reported Deccan Herald.