The rumoured internal tussle in the Chhattisgarh Congress on the issue of sharing of chief ministerial tenure has taken another turn with a ruling party MLA accusing Health Minister T.S. Singh Deo of getting his convoy attacked on Saturday as he (MLA) had praised Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and said that Baghel would continue to be at the helm.
The incident, apparently an issue of road rage, had occurred in Ambikapur town of Sarguja district late on Saturday night. On Sunday, MLA Ramanujganj Brihaspat Singh alleged that the attack was at the behest of Singh Deo, as one of the accused was his the minister’s relative.
Singh Deo has denied his involvement and asked police to do its work. Police later arrested three persons, including the kin of the minister in the case. Singh Deo is considered to be top contender of the CM’s post in Chhattisgarh in a purported CM post sharing formula of the party.
Though leaders at every level in the Congress have denied any such arrangements, the matter has come up for discussions time and again with the opposition BJP raking it up at each possible opportunity. The statement of MLA Brihaspat Singh that he was attacked for supporting CM Baghel has given spur to the issue again.
Politics raged over the matter on Monday as the opposition BJP raised it on the opening day of the monsoon session of the State Assembly and demanded a probe by a House Committee. Senior leaders like ex-CM Raman Singh, leader of opposition Dharamlal Kaushik and ex-ministers Brijmohan Agrawal and Ajay Chandrakar took up the matter vociferously, forcing repeated adjournment of the house.
The opposition did not allow Parliamentary Affairs minister Ravindra Choubey to complete his statement and kept demanding that Singh Deo, Brihaspat Singh and Bhupesh Baghel make a statement on the issue. In statements made in and outside the house, the opposition leaders said that if a ruling party MLA was not feeling safe in the state, it spoke a lot about the law and order situation and the internal feud in the ruling party. They also said that it was for the first time in Chhattisgarh that an MLA of a party was accusing a minister of the same party of assaulting him.
In a statement that was repeatedly interrupted, Chief Minister Baghel said in the house that it was the responsibility of the state government to ensure protection to each member of the House and that his government would provide security to them. After this, Speaker Charandas Mahant said that he will issue directions on the matter on Tuesday and moved on to other business. Though both Singh Deo and MLA Singh were present in the house, they did not speak.
However, the political drama continued as Congress Chhattisgarh in-charge P.L. Punia returned from the airport after abandoning his Delhi trip and met Chief Minister Baghel, Speaker Mahant, Minister Singh Deo and MLA Brihaspat Singh later in the afternoon. After these meetings, Punia tried to play the matter light saying that he was just paying a courtesy visit to the speaker and not much should be read into it. On questions of the controversy related to Singh's allegations, Punia said that the matter had come to an end and none of those involved was speaking out anymore on the issue.
