Chhattisgarh CM's Post Key Poll Issue

Raipur: The purported agreement over rotation of chief ministerial post between CM Bhupesh Baghel and his deputy T S Singh Deo has become a key topic of discussion in the public in the Ambikapur assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh as the latter hit the campaign trail seeking re-election from the seat for the fourth time in a row in the November 17 polls.

Mr Singh Deo, the 118th ‘Maharaja’ of erstwhile Surguja princely estate, has meanwhile moved on after his two and half years long fight to make Congress high command honour the purported pact came to naught.

But, the ghost of the issue has returned to haunt him with it becoming the focal point of the electoral narrative in the constituency.

“We wonder why the ‘Maharaja’ chose to give up his fight to be appointed chief minister of Chhattisgarh as per the purported agreement at the last moment and accepted the post of deputy chief minister just three months before the assembly polls.

This has dented the aura of Mr Singh Deo, highly respected as the Maharaja by the people in the entire Surguja division, Ambikapur-based social activist Sanjay Singh said.

A professor of Rajiv Gandhi Government Post-Graduate College in Ambikar, while requesting not to be quoted, firmly believed that had Mr Singh Deo refused to yield to pressure to accept the deputy chief minister’s post, his image would have been boosted in the whole region.

“Even, the party would have benefitted had he done so”, he opined.

This was corroborated by Ambikapur-based political analyst Maniram Chaturvedi.

Congress had swept the Surguja division in the 2018 assembly elections by bagging all the 14 seats in the region, as Mr Singh Deo was seen as the chief ministerial candidate then.

Mr Singh Deo may find it a challenging task to help the party repeat the show of 2018 assembly polls in the upcoming assembly elections owing to the development, he felt.

“The issue has become the focal point of electoral narrative in the constituency”, Namita Singh, a housewife in Ambikapur town, said.

She however said that Mr Singh Deo continued to endear himself with the people in the region for his down-to-earth nature and humbleness.

Mr Singh Deo has several times in the past maintained that the matter was discussed in a closed-door meeting of the party and the purported pact was not admitted by the Congress in public.

According to the purported pact, Mr Baghel and Mr Singh Deo were to share the chief minister’s post for two and half years each.

But, Mr Baghel as well as the Congress leadership had been categorically denying that there was any such pact.

Mr Singh Deo is pitted against Rajesh Agrawal of BJP in a 13-cornered contest in the constituency.