Surguja royal Tribhuwaneshwar Saran Singh Deo better known as TS Singh Deo, the Congress party MlA from Ambikapur seat on Thursday was elected as the leader of Congress legislature Party (ClP) in the Chhattisgarh Assembly.
Congress MlA from Kota Assembly seat Renu Jogi who is wife of former Chief Minister and Senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi was elected as the Deputy leader of Opposition in the Chhattisgarh Assembly while lakheswar Baghel, the MlA from Bastar Assembly seat was elected as Chief Whip announced AICC General Secretary and party’s in-charge of Chhattisgarh BK Hariprasad here while addressing a jam-packed Press conference at the party’s State Headquarters Congress Bhawan on Thursday.
The name of TS Singh Deo as ClP leader was already being discussed among one of the most prominent candidates in the party for the post. After Bhupesh Baghel was selected as Chief of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CGPCC) and Senior Congress leader and MlA Satyanarayan Sharma as Pro-tem Speaker, the way of T S Singh Deo was cleared as ClP leader in the State.
The newly-elected ClP leader had defeated BJP’s Anurag Sing Deo by a record margin on 19,558 votes in the recently concluded Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh. Immediately after the announcement of the ClP leader made by Hariprasad, Singh Deo while talking to media persons demanded a White Paper from the ruling BJP Government over the Jheeram Ghati massacre of Congress leaders and others on May 25 last year.
“The BJP should tell that to what extent they have supported the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its investigation on the Jeeram Ghati issue,” Singh Deo, said. Detailing out his priorities, Singh Deo said he that would try to present the Congress party as an option before people of Chhattisgarh.
“We would raise basic issues concerning people such as quality education and health. The ruling BJP Government is spending crores of rupees in the education sector. New schools are coming up yet the students in rural areas cannot perform basic mathematical functions or read languages fluently,” Singh Deo remarked indicating the Congress could again raise the issues of Indira Priyadarshani Bank scam.
Replying to query about factionalism in the Chhattisgarh Congress, the newly-appointed ClP leader remarked, “Whatever I can do, I will do for ending it.”