Unable to meet halfway in Chhattisgarh

It all started after the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections in December 2018.

Initially, after the elections were held, as part of then Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s plan to introduce new faces in the state, Tamradhwaj Sahu was chosen to become chief minister. Of the 90 Assembly seats, the Congress had won 68, trouncing the Bharatiya Janata Party, which got only 15. Other parties managed seven seats. The leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Assembly was Tribhuvaneshwar Saran Singh Deo, or T S Baba, as he is known in Chhattisgarh. So he naturally expected a big role in the new government, maybe even the top job. He won his seat, Ambikapur, by nearly 90,000 votes, which is convincing by any standard in an Assembly election.

Bhupesh Baghel, who later became chief minister, and Mr Singh Deo had just returned from New Delhi, where they had each been given some sort of assurance of getting the top job. They landed in Raipur only to find that Tamradhwaj Sahu’s supporters were letting off celebratory fireworks. Like the proverbial tortoise, Mr Sahu had won the race. They returned to the airport and went back to New Delhi, where Ahmad Patel, the man who made all contradictions vanish, thrashed out a half and half arrangement for chief ministership. As part of that arrangement, Mr Sahu was made home minister.

Then came Covid-19, which claimed Ahmad Patel. Now you had only Mr Singh Deo’s word that he was given an assurance he would be chief minister for the second half of the term. When Mr Baghel played the innocent and refused to budge, Mr Singh Deo ratcheted up his protest a notch. Last year, in July, both were called to New Delhi. On returning, Mr Baghel made a public statement that “no change was in the offing and that this is not a coalition government where the term is divided between two individuals”, making it clear that if promises were made, they were no longer valid.

And now Chhattisgarh has a leadership crisis, matching the one in Punjab and Rajasthan. Punjab has already seen exits and the decimation of the Congress. A verdict in Rajasthan is awaited.

In between, reports of scams appeared: That the government was on the verge of deploying public resources to rescue a medical college in Durg that was in trouble — it was no coincidence that the college was owned by Mr Baghel’s relatives. Mr Singh Deo, who became health and panchayati raj minister, keeps reminding the chief minister that promises in the Congress manifesto should not be left unfulfilled. And the Central government is after Mr Baghel over plot allotments in Durg in cases dating back to when Raman Singh was chief minister.

Now once again, Mr Singh Deo is reminding the chief minister of the promises made in the Congress manifesto: He has resigned from the rural development and panchayati raj portfolio, claiming that if the chief minister wanted to run his ministries, he was free to do so. This follows the sacking of 21 assistant programme officers (APOs) for the MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in the state. Chhattisgarh saw a strike by MGNREGA officials. This halted MGNREGA works in the state during the crucial summer months of April, May, and June this year. They were issued a warning and when they did not return to work they were sacked. But the chief minister’s office, on July 15, went over the head of the minister, reinstating the APOs, causing a loss of face to Mr Singh Deo, whose department had issued the termination order.

In a letter that was made public, Mr Singh Deo said not a single house had been built for beneficiaries under the PM Awas Yojana because funds were not allotted despite “repeated requests”. Some discretionary powers of the minister had been curtailed. There was another issue: Earlier this month, the Chhattisgarh cabinet cleared rules to be formulated under Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act. These were different from the ones proposed by Mr Singh Deo, the minister.

Since then, Mr Singh Deo has clarified that he has resigned from one portfolio but retains health and continues to be a member of the Congress. At first Mr Baghel was in denial, claiming he had got no resignation letter. Then at his persuasion, 61 MLAs, including 10 ministers, have signed a letter to the high command, seeking disciplinary action against Mr Singh Deo.

The two men are like chalk and cheese. Mr Baghel is street-smart and belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in a state where the OBC population is more than 55 per cent. By contrast, Mr Singh Deo, a member of the Sarguja royal family, is suave and polite.

As things stand, Mr Singh Deo will probably have to grin and bear it. The Congress leadership is too busy fighting the Enforcement Directorate to address factional fighting in Chhattisgarh. In any case, Mr Baghel is too important an asset to dump, even though his efforts in Assam (he was in charge of the Assembly elections and the Congress’s showing was dismal) came to nought. The possibility of Mr Singh Deo joining the BJP is low while Raman Singh is there. But everyone knows: Discontent in a political party can sometimes cause unexpected accidents. One is waiting to happen in Chhattisgarh.