Leadership row: Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel meets Priyanka Gandhi in Delhi

New Delhi, July 11

Trouble in the Chhattisgarh unit of the Congress appears to have subdued for now with Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel meeting the top brass in the capital today and told to continue focusing on Covid response and governance.

DEO: In capital for health reasons

It is reported that Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo has been camping in Delhi to remind the party high command of the 2018 promise that Bhupesh Baghel and he would share the CM term for 2.5 years each. Deo has, however, denied the reports, saying he was in Delhi for health reasons.

Baghel met AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the residence of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday and categorically indicated that he was there to stay as the CM.

The meeting was necessitated after reports that Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo had been camping in Delhi to remind the party high command of the 2018 promise that Baghel and him would share the chief minister terms for 2.5 years each.

“Such arrangements are made in coalition governments. The Congress had won in Chhattisgarh with a three-fourths majority,” Baghel said after meeting Vadra and later AICC general secretary in charge of the state PL Punia. Punia also backed the CM.

Baghel said the party high command had instructed him to take oath as the CM and he did that. “When they say someone else will be the CM, then it’ll be so. But such arrangements happen in coalition governments. The Congress has a three-fourths majority in Chhattisgarh,” he said. For now, the Chhattisgarh woes of the Congress appear addressed even as fronts remain open in Punjab, Karnataka and Rajasthan. — TNS