With resentment between Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and his Cabinet colleague TS Singh Deo growing and both washing dirty linens in public, Congress leadership has summoned both of them to Delhi on Tuesday.
The resolution of the internal tussle between the duo in the State Congress, which rules Chhattisgarh with two-third majority, has now become another headache for the central leadership after tackling rifts in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and a couple of North Eastern States.
With both sides threatening to resign, party sources said Baghel and Deo have been called to meet senior leaders separately. This was the same method the Congress high command applied in Punjab unit and was also making similar attempts in Rajasthan to solve the crisis.
Baghel and Deo are likely to meet first AICC general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, State in-charge PL Punia, Pawan Bansal amongst few others and, then if need be, to meet former party chief Rahul Gandhi and then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, as per the AICC sources.
After the Assam Assembly elections where he was made the in-charge, Baghel has come into good books of the party high command that may now reward him by making him responsibility of managing the election affairs in Uttar Pradesh next year.
Last month, Baghel met party chief Sonia, Rahul, and Priyanka Gandhi.
Baghel’s rival, Health Minister Deo, has been giving trouble to the Congress which is ruling the State with a very comfortable majority. He claims that that the party promised half tenure (two and half year) to him after anointing Baghel as the CM soon after the Assembly results were declared in December 2018.
As per the claims made by Deo and his side, Baghel should vacate now that 2.5 years have elapsed , a promise which the party has time and again denied making.
AICC sources said a different formula similar to that of Punjab would be worked upon as the Congress high command has no intentions of changing the leadership and wants to continue with Baghel as the CM.
Last month, tensions escalated after Deo walked out of the Assembly demanding an enquiry or release of a statement over allegations of staging an attack on party MLA Brihaspat Singh.
The rift recently deepened after Deo sought a meeting with the party high command seeking to replace Baghel. Both leaders have also reportedly met senior Congress leaders at different points in Delhi to seek a solution to the crisis. Congress general secretary in-charge of the State PL Punia visited Chhattisgarh recently and tried to play down the differences and rubbished the possibility of any change of leadership.
After meeting Sonia, the CM last month had asserted that he will step down from the post if the party asks him to do so.
When the Congress wrested power from Raman Singh’s BJP 10 years rule, there were four contenders for the post of CM - Bhupesh Baghel, TS Singh Deo, Tamradhwaj Sahu, and Charandas Mahant. All four had been called in for a discussion by the then Congress president Rahul and finally Baghel was chosen. There have been speculations since then that formula to divide the chief ministerial tenure between Baghel and Deo was made to keep everyone happy.