Amid rumours that Bhupesh Baghel was appointed Chhattisgarh chief minister for two and a half years and that there is a likelihood of someone else taking over as chief minister, Baghel said if the Congress high command tells him that someone else will take oath as chief minister, it will be so.
Baghel, who met Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi in Delhi on Sunday, said the party high command instructed him to take oath as chief minister, so be obliged. "When they will say someone else will be CM, then it will be so. Such agreements happen in coalition governments. Congress has a three-fourth majority in Chhattisgarh," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
Further, he said he is willing to take up any responsibility that the party high commands wants to. "If the high command gives me any responsibility for upcoming elections in UP, I will do it," he was quoted as saying.
There have been reports that there is a rift between Baghel and T.S. Singh Deo, who is the health minister of the state after Deo expressed his opposition to the government proposal to allow private doctors to set up hospitals in rural areas with government aid. However, Deo too refuted reports that there is some sort of formula of a change of guard after the government completes two and a half years.
Senior Congress leaders had, a few weeks ago, rubbished rumours of a leadership change in the state and had accused the BJP of spreading rumours.
There is no such understanding or any formula, Congress leader Chhattisgarh P.L. Punia had said. "There no point in such a formula as the Congress party has a three-fourth majority in Chhattisgarh. Such an agreement happens in coalition governments. Chhattisgarh is running with a three-fourth majority government," he was quoted as saying.