Top leadership of the Congress in Chhattisgarh has apparently differed over induction of some JCC (J) leaders into the party fold.
Senior Congress leader and Panchayat, Rural Development and Health Minister T.S. Singhdeo expressed his reservation over Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s decision to induct five senior JCC (J) leaders on Tuesday into the Congress fold ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The JCC (J) leaders joined the Congress by taking primary membership of the grand old party in the presence of Baghel, who is also the Pradesh Congress president, on Tuesday at Marwahi, the bastion of former chief minister and JCC (J) chief Ajit Jogi.
The leaders include JCC (J) candidates in the recently concluded assembly polls and former MLAs Siyaram Kaushik (Bilha), Chaitram Sahu (Bhatapara), Brajesh Sahu (Bilaspur), Chandrabhan Barmate (Mungeli) and Santosh Kaushik (Takhatpur).
Singhdeo, however, had a note of caution against the move, saying it would impact the morale of the Congress workers.
“It would diminish the morale of the Congress workers as these leaders had fought against the Congress in the recently held polls”, he said.
He also made it clear that the newly-inducted leaders should not be in the forefront of the party.
“The new entrants should be the second rung leaders of the party while the Congress activists who devotedly struggled for the party in the recently concluded assembly polls should be in the frontline”, he stated.
Baghel, however, tried to downplay the rift.He said “it was a ‘home coming’ for the leaders and they were basically adherent of the Congress ideology”.“Their inclusion in the party-fold has been done after contemplating all pros and cons”, he added.