Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and his cabinet colleague and rival TS Singh Deo, who recently gave up one of his ministries, left for Delhi on Saturday evening to meet the Congress high command.
The development suggested that the tussle between the two Congress leaders was intensifying with assembly elections more than a year away.
Mr Baghel, appointed as the Congress' senior observer for the upcoming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, said he would meet party leaders in Delhi on Sunday.
"I will meet party leaders in Delhi. I will also meet our leaders of Himachal Pradesh tomorrow," the CM told reporters at Swami Vivekananda airport here before leaving for the national capital around 5:30 pm.
Mr Singh Deo, who was in Bhopal, too left for Delhi and will be seeking a meeting with the top Congress leaders, sources close to him said.
On July 16, Mr Singh Deo resigned as the minister of Panchayat and Rural Development, though he retained his other portfolios.
In his four-page resignation letter to the chief minister, Mr Singh Deo claimed that he was unable to fulfil the targets set for the rural development department as per the Jan Ghoshna Patra (poll manifesto), given the "current scenario".
In June 2021, the rivalry between Mr Baghel and Mr Singh Deo had come to the fore for a brief period after Mr Baghel completed two-and-half years as Chief Minister. Mr Singh Deo's supporters claimed that as per an understanding reached in 2018, he was supposed to take over after Mr Baghel completed half the term.
While Mr Singh Deo later backed down after both the leaders visited Delhi and met the party high command, recently he voiced opposition to coal mine projects in the Hasdeo Arand forest area of Surguja district, and hinted that the truce was over.
On Thursday, Mr Baghel handed over the Panchayat and Rural Development portfolio to senior minister Ravindra Choubey.
Meanwhile, speaking at the airport, Mr Baghel said to a question that "there is respect" for all central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, "but ED raids only those places where there is a non-BJP government." "They also come to Chhattisgarh....there were no financial irregularities in National Herald (newspaper) but it is investigating it. In Chhattisgarh, chit fund companies looted Rs 6,500 crore from poor people (during the BJP rule) and escaped. Why doesn't the agency investigate it? We took the initiative and returned Rs 40 crore of investors," he said.
Former Chief Minister Raman Singh and his family members were alleged "brand ambassadors (of chit fund companies)" and there is an FIR lodged against his son (Abhishek Singh) under the direction of the court, Mr Baghel said, adding that as there is an FIR, the ED should probe it.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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