New Delhi: Amid crisis in Punjab and suspense over leadership in Chhattisgarh, over a dozen MLAs from the Congress-ruled state reached Delhi on Wednesday to seek appointment with Rahul Gandhi.
There was buzz that the MLAs had gone to Delhi to express their support to Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel ahead of the visit of Rahul Gandhi to the state. The MLAs said that they have come to request Rahul Gandhi to visit their constituencies.
Brihaspati Singh, one of the loyalists of Baghel, said there is no need for leadership change in the state as all the MLAs are with the Chief Minister.
"Around 15-16 party MLAs have reached Delhi and are staying at different places. Rahul ji's visit to Chhattisgarh is proposed. We wanted to convey a request to Rahul ji through our state in-charge P L Punia ji that he should extend a little the duration of his tour so that all the MLAs could get benefit of it," said Brihaspat Singh, the party MLA from Ramanujganj seat of state, as per report by NDTV.
The rallying of MLAs comes amid talks of rotational chief minister in Chhattisgarh, as the visit of Rahul Gandhi will decide the future of Congress politics in the state. As of now there is a suspense in both the camps -- one led by Chief Minister Baghel and the other led by state Health Minister TS Singh Deo.
But Singh denied any tussle between Baghel and Singh Deo and said that both the leaders had recently shared the stage and exchanged sweets. He also said that they respect each other.
"The situation in Chhattisgarh is not similar to Punjab. The high command of any party would not put the entire government at stake just to make one leader happy...," he said.
Mohan Markam, the state Congress President had said the party was busy in the preparation of Rahul Gandhi's visit to Sarguja and Bastar, both tribal belts, and Sarguja is also the stronghold of TS Singhdeo. Markam had said he was head of the organisation in the state and does not belong to any camp.
However, dates of the visit of the former Congress President have not been not finalised yet, but he may go on the onset of the second week of October and get a sense of state politics.
Meanwhile Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel is on an overdrive on the issue of development. He has been highlighting the people-friendly policies of the government.
The supporters of Singhdeo have been pushing for a change of guard since incumbent Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel completed 2.5 years in office. Suspense still looms on the issue of rotational chief minister as there is no clarity from the top leadership of the party.
Congress in-charge of the state PL Punia has time and again denied that any such deal was struck in 2018 when the party came to power by dislodging the BJP.
Baghel and Singh Deo have not gone to record to say anything about the leadership issue since then, the feud has not abated.
