Raipur: The Shiv Sena Thursday announced the first list of 24 candidates for the assembly polls to be held in November in Chhattisgarh.

Party state president Dhananjay Parihar said the party would publish the second list soon and would try to contest most of the 90 seats in the state assembly.

Political analysts say that Shiv Sena is unlikely to win any major seat but has the potential to substantially erode the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party s (BJP) vote bank in five of the state s 18 districts.

Presently, the BJP has 52 members in a 90-member state assembly, while the Congress has 34 legislators. The Nationalist Congress Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have one seat each, while two seats - Marwahi and Surajpur - are vacant. BJP and Congress sources said the parties are in the final phase of selecting candidates for the polls.

Source : IANS