Chhattisgarh Congress MLAs, Camping In Delhi, Deny Leadership Change Speculation

Amid speculation over the possibility of leadership change in Chhattisgarh, a group of Congress MLAs known to be close to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel are camping in Delhi and one of them asserted on Thursday that there was no question of a change at the top in the state and Mr Baghel would complete his full term.

Around 15 party MLAs are in Delhi and they want to meet AICC in-charge Chhattisgarh PL Punia to convey that Rahul Gandhi should extend the duration of his proposed tour to the state so that all MLAs can get benefit of it, said Brihaspat Singh, the party MLA from the Ramanujganj seat of the state.

When contacted, Mr Punia said he was in Lucknow and had no information about MLAs being in Delhi as none of them had contacted him.

The AICC in-charge of the state said he had no plans to return to Delhi at least for a week.

Mr Singh, however, insisted that they were waiting for Mr Punia and would speak with him when he would return.

Asked whether their visit was aimed at expressing support to Mr Baghel amid buzz of leadership change, Mr Singh said their visit was aimed at conveying to the high command that Mr Gandhi should extend the duration of his proposed tour, but added that there was no possibility of a leadership change.

"The situation in Chhattisgarh is not like that of Punjab. Our party has 70 MLAs (in the 90-member state assembly), of whom 60 legislators had last time told everything to Punia ji and the high command," Mr Singh told PTI.

"The high command gave a chief minister from the OBC community with 54 per cent OBCs in the state. The high command gives the example of Chhattisgarh government's policies during elections in other states, so there is no such question (of leadership change)," Mr Singh said.

As far as the BJP people are concerned, if they think they can make the government fall by misleading "Maharaja of Sarguja" (reference to TS Singhdeo) as they did in Madhya Pradesh by misleading "Gwalior Maharaja" (a reference to Jyotiraditya Scindia), they will not be successful, Mr Singh said.

"Our Maharaja of Sarguja is very intelligent, very knowledgeable and has himself stated that he will never leave the party. So there is no possibility and under the leadership of Bhupesh Baghel, together with TS Singhdeo, the government will continue to work for the development of the state," the MLA said.

Mr Baghel is doing a great job and "we will work under his leadership for five years and will fight elections under his leadership in the future with the blessings of Rahul Gandhi", he added.

The buzz in political circles in Chhattisgarh over legislators having gone to express their support to Mr Baghel comes in the wake of the Punjab political crisis for the party.

Plunging the Congress into a fresh crisis months ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls, Navjot Singh Sidhu quit as the party's state unit chief on Tuesday, shortly after the allocation of portfolios among the members of the new state cabinet led by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

The demand for a change of guard reared its head in Chhattisgarh after Mr Baghel completed two and a half years as chief minister in June 2021. The Singhdeo camp claimed that the high command in 2018 had agreed to hand over the post to him after the government completed half its term.

Congress in-charge of the state Mr Punia has time and again denied that any such deal was struck in 2018 when the party came to power by dislodging the BJP.

The Congress high command summoned both Mr Baghel and Singh Deo to Delhi in August to resolve the feud.

It appeared that Mr Baghel had managed to avert for the time being a leadership change when he told reporters upon return that party leader Rahul Gandhi had agreed to visit the state 'on his invitation', and those talking about rotating the CM's post were promoting political instability. However, there has been constant speculation over the matter.