The Congress party which is striving hard to stage a comeback in power in Chhattisgarh will not project any leader as the chief ministerial candidate for the 90-member Assembly polls scheduled in the State later next year.
“The party will not project anyone as the CM candidate for the 2018 Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh,” senior Congress leader Pl Punia, who is party in-charge for Chhattisgarh told The Pioneer.
Punia informed that the Congress would rely on ‘collective leadership’ for 2018 crucial Assembly polls in the mineral-rich State where party is out of power since 2003 and the Chief Minister candidate would be picked up by party’s elected MlAs if Congress gets majority.
Seventy-two-year-old Punia who has planned to make a whirlwind trip of all 27 districts to establish direct interactions with grass-root level party cadres, said, “people are fed up with BJP Government’s corruption and misgovernance and Congress has a fair chance to return to power in 2018 polls.”
The Congress was voted out of power in 2003 polls when Ajit Jogi was heading the party Government in Chhattisgarh and since then the party is struggling in the State to challenge BJP’s dominance.
The Congress received a massive setback in 2013 when its popular leader and State president Nand Kumar Patel was killed along with 30 others in Bastar by Maoists and many in the party still say that after death of Patel, no leader in Congress in Chhattisgarh has emerged as a ‘face acceptable to all factions’.
The party received another blow in 2016 as Ajit Jogi deserted the Congress and he has now floated his own political outfit to make the 2018 Assembly polls a triangular contest though political analysts say Jogi’s desertion is ‘a blessing in disguise’ for Congress.
Punia claimed, “Congress would certainly win 2018 polls as all the State leaders are united and determined to work in tandem to expose BJP Government’s misdeeds.” In 2013 Assembly polls, the Congress bagged 39 seats while the BJP retained Government for the third consecutive term with 49 seats.