Even as the Congress leadership is busy fire-fighting the turmoil in Punjab, at least 12 of its Chhattisgarh MLAs arrived in Delhi ostensibly to pre-empt any decision to replace Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and appoint health minister T.S. Singh Deo in his place.
One of the MLAs told The Daily Guardian that they came to Delhi to meet the party leadership on the issue of change of leadership in the state, while adding that it would be “suicidal’ for the party if Baghel was changed. The MLA, requesting anonymity, said that they would first meet state in-charge P.L. Punia.
Punia told The Daily Guardian that he was in Lucknow and hence would not be able to meet any MLAs, while denying any possibility of replacing Baghel with Deo. This sudden development has come within days of more than 40 MLAs and Congress functionaries coming to Delhi to show their support for Baghel. However, they were not given an audience by either of the Gandhi siblings who were apparently miffed with the “show of strength”.
T.S. Singh Deo, too, has come to Delhi twice in the last one month. MLAs and functionaries who are supporting Singh’s candidature as CM claimed that his elevation as CM was inevitable and would happen any day after 6 October when the “inauspicious’ Pitru Paksh ends.
“Baghel knows that Rahul Gandhi will keep his commitment of making Singh Deo the CM which he had promised when in December 2018 when the party won the Assembly elections. To put pressure on Rahul Gandhi so that he doesn’t do this, Baghel has sent these MLAs,” a party MLA claimed.
According to Deo’s supporters, Bhupesh Baghel was made the Chief Minister by Rahul Gandhi on the condition that he would give the CM’s chair to Deo after completing 2.5 years, which ended in June this year.
However, P.L. Punia has, in the past, has denied the existence of any such arrangement.