Bhilai, Dec 11, 2018: In Durg (Rural), INC Candidate and sitting Member of Parliament Tamradhwaj Sahu defeated his nearest rival Jageshwar Sahu of BJP by a margin of 27112 votes. It was expected to be a triangular contest between BJP Candidate Jageshwar Sahu; Congress candidate Tamradhwaj Sahu and CJC (J) candidate Dr Balmukund Dewangan in this seat but finally it proved to be a direct Sahu v/s Sahu fight. It needs to be mentioned here that initially INC had fielded Pratima Chandrakar as its candidate from this partially urban and partially rural seat but in a last minute change, they played the Sahu card and replaced her with Tamradhwaj Sahu which proved to be a winning decision.
Nine contestants were fray from Durg (Rural). Tamradhwaj Sahu (INC) secured 76208 votes; Jageshwar Sahu (BJP) secured 49096 votes; Dr Balmukund Dewangan (CJC-J) got 11485 votes; Ishwari Kurre (AAP) got 1286 votes; Badri Prasad Parkar (Chhattisgarh Swabhimaan Manch) secured 1336; Chumman Lal Deshmukh (Ind) got 2819; Satish Parakh (Democratic Party of India) secured 970 votes; Balmukund Dewangan (Ind) got 2069 votes; and Jageshwar Kumar Sahu (Ind) 553 votes. 2603 votes went to none of the above (NOTA).