Kharsia assembly constituency: A Congress bastion since 1977

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Kharsia assembly seat has stood out as an impregnable Congress fortress. Despite 11 elections, including a bypoll, the BJP is yet to breach it. The constituency in Raigarh district, before Chhattisgarh was carved out of MP, had hogged the limelight in 1988 when Congress stalwart and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh successfully contested the by-election from here.

Barring Singh, the seat has always been represented by Patels (Aghariya), an Other Backward Class (OBC) community, which constitutes about 25 per cent of the population in this constituency.
The seat is currently held by Chhattisgarh higher education minister Umesh Patel, who has been renominated from the same place for next month's polls. This time, the BJP has pinned its hopes on Mahesh Sahu, a member of another dominant OBC community — Teli.

Polling to the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17.
Poll experts feel it won't be easy for the BJP to wrest this Congress bastion as even its stalwarts like Dilip Singh Judeo and Lakhiram Agrawal could not win from Kharsia.
In 1977, Kharsia was carved in Raigarh district covering some parts of Raigarh and Dharamjaigarh areas.

It was then a part of Madhya Pradesh. Chhattisgarh was formed in 2000.
Congress' Laxmi Prasad Patel won this seat in 1977 despite there being a Janata Party wave, and subsequently in 1980 and 1985 Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.

Laxmi Prasad vacated his seat for Arjun Singh, who resigned as Lok Sabha MP in 1988 and returned to Madhya Pradesh politics. Kharsia, then a backward area, was considered to be a safe seat for Singh, who defeated BJP's Dilip Singh Judeo by a margin of 8,658 seats in bypoll.
Considering that Laxmi Prasad