Going by the first reaction of Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel after his much-watched meeting with Congress ex-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday, his chief ministerial chair seems to be safe for now.
After an over three-hour-long meeting with Rahul, a part of which Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi was also present, Baghel told the waiting media persons that he discussed everything with Rahul including political and administrative issues. “At the end of it, I requested Rahul-ji to visit Chhattisgarh. He has gladly accepted and will visit next week,” Baghel said.
To a question whether he will be the chief minister when Gandhi visits, Baghel emphatically said “I have invited him as the chief minister.” He also said that in Chhattisgarh, Gandhi will visit Bastar first and look at various developmental projects.
The statements of Baghel, made in the presence of Chhattisgarh Congress in-charge P.L. Punia seemed to indicate that Baghel was confident about continuing on his post as of now. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K.C. Venugopal also attended the meeting.
T.S. Singh Deo, the contender for the chief ministerial post under the much talked about "2.5 years formula" is camping in Delhi for the past week, but was not present at the meeting with Rahul Gandhi.
On the "2.5 years formula" question, Baghel said that Chhattisgarh in-charge (Punia) had already clarified on the matter earlier and he did not want to say anything further on it. Punia had said after meeting with Gandhi on Tuesday that there had been no discussion on leadership issues.
Meanwhile, over 50 Congress MLAs of Chhattisgarh including several ministers, who had reached New Delhi during the past two days, gathered at the Congress headquarters on Friday afternoon even as the meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Baghel was on. This was seen as a big show of strength by Baghel as the MLAs sought to meet senior functionaries of the party and are also said to have signed a statement in Baghel’s support.
After meeting with Gandhi, Baghel along with Punia proceeded to the AICC headquarters where he was meeting the MLAs as this report was being filed.
Buzz of change of guard had reached a crescendo on Thursday after it became known that Baghel was called to New Delhi for a meeting with Rahul Gandhi—for the second time in three days. Baghel and the other contender for chief ministerial post T.S. Singh Deo had met Gandhi on Tuesday and K.C. Venugopal on Wednesday in New Delhi.
Singh Deo kept the pot boiling when he said on Thursday that every team member wanted to be a captain, clearly indicating his chief ministerial aspirations clearly. He had expectedly added that it was for the high command to take the decision.
Baghel had returned to Raipur on Wednesday afternoon to a tumultuous welcome, which was construed as a show of strength by the chief minister. The beeline of MLAs and ministers to New Delhi was a bigger show of their support to Baghel.
Political watchers said that given the big show of support of the MLAs, Baghel’s image as a performer CM and rising national-level politician, the Congress seniors will find it difficult to remove him. Also, the fact that he belongs to the OBC category—a community much in focus politically—weighs in favour of Baghel. Many feel that any move to remove Baghel will be suicidal for Congress as it is already facing big internal rumble in states like Punjab and Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh was considered its most stable stronghold till now.
Before leaving for Delhi, Baghel told media persons in Raipur that K.C. Venugopal had called him to Delhi and therefore he was going. As for the MLAs and ministers going to Delhi, he said that most of them had not gone to the national capital ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck and therefore they had gone there. “There is nothing wrong about going to meet one’s leaders, anyone can do that,” Baghel said. The CM however refused to comment on Singh Deo’s comment that every member of a team aspired to become a captain, saying that these were his [Singh Deo’s] personal comments.
Though the political situation was already buzzing in the state, it became more intense on Thursday afternoon when ministers and MLAs, who had earlier met the chief minister too, started leaving for New Delhi. Among the first lot to go were ministers Anila Bhedia, Shiv Dehria and parliamentary secretary Vikas Upadhyay followed by key Baghel supporter Amarjit Bhagat in the evening.
After this, later in the evening, almost 30 more MLAs reached Delhi and later met P.L. Punia. Some of them were Kuldip Juneja, Devendra Yadav, Brihaspat Singh, Shishupal Sori, Prakash Nayak, Vinay Jaiswal, Gurudayal Banjare, Ashish Chhabra, Kismatlal Nand, Chandradev rai, U.D. Minj, Rashmi Sing, Gulab Kamro, Laxmi Dhruv, Shankuntala Singh, Vinay Bhagat, Dwarkadhish Yadav, Purushottam Kanwar, Kunwar Nishad, Chintamani Maharaj, Bhuneshwar Baghel and others.
On Friday morning, ahead of Baghel, minister Kawasi Lakhma and MLAs Arun Vora (son of veteran leader late Motilal Vora), Rajman Benjamin, Chandan Kashyap and Rekhchand Jain also left for Delhi.
The ministers and MLAs met the Punia again for about an hour on Friday over lunch and are said to have communicated their support for Baghel.