Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel reached the national capital on Saturday and is likely to raise with the Congress leadership the issue of his differences with state minister T.S. Singh Deo. They said Singh Deo is also likely to be in the national capital as he is the observer for Gujarat assembly polls along with chief observer Ashok Gehlot. Baghel is in Delhi to participate in the Congress' strategy meet ahead of Himachal Pradesh assembly elections. He is the chief observer for the assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh slated later this year where the Congress is seeking to replace the BJP from power.
On July 16, Singh Deo, who is locked in a turf war with Baghel, resigned from his post of the minister of panchayat and rural development, hinting that he was sidelined in the state government. The development triggered a fresh row in the ruling party. Singh Deo, however, remains the minister for health and family welfare, medical education, twenty point implementation and commercial tax (GST) departments.
The sudden development, which has come over a year ahead of the state assembly elections, is being seen as bitter fallout of an old political rivalry between Baghel and Singh Deo, who was seeking the chief minister's post under a purported power-sharing agreement.
In a four-page resignation letter to the chief minister, Singh Deo cited various reasons and claimed that he was unable to fulfil the targets set for the rural development department as per the Jan Ghoshna Patra (poll manifesto), given the "current scenario".
In June last year, the differences between Baghel and Singh Deo had flared up shortly after the former completed half his tenure in the office. A fresh point of contention between the chief minister and Singh Deo seems to be the coal mine projects in the Hasdeo Arand forest area of Surguja district. On Thursday, Baghel handed over the panchayat and rural development portfolio to senior minister Ravindra Choubey.Â
