Chhattisgarh Congress to select Leader of Opposition next week, 3 in race

The Congress will announce the name of LoP before Tuesday as the first assembly after the new government is formed is likely to start on December 19

Three Congress leaders – Charandas Mahant, Bhupesh Baghel and Umesh Patel – are in the race for the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Chhattisgarh assembly, which is likely to be announced by the party next week, party officials aware of the development said.

Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (Twitter/@INCChhattisgarh)

According to party officials mentioned above, the Congress will announce the name of LoP before Tuesday (December 19) as the first assembly after the new government is formed is likely to start on December 19.

Charandas Mahant is the former speaker of the state assembly and MLA from the Sakti constituency, Baghel is the former chief minister and Patel is the former minister.

From 2004 to 2013, Mahant held the post of working and full-time Congress state president, while Patel represents the Kharsiya assembly constituency and has been an MLA three times since 2013.

At the organisational level, Patel has also remained the president of the Chhattisgarh Youth Congress Committee between 2016-19. Umesh was also the Cabinet Minister for Higher Education from 2018 to 23.

As most senior leaders, including TS Singh Deo, Ravindra Choubey, Muhammad Akbar and Jai Singh Agarwal, lost the recently concluded assembly elections, there was not much choice before the state Congress, a senior leader claimed.

“Mahant is trying hard for the post, but some of the MLAs are not supporting him,” said a Congress MLA.

However, some MLAs and leaders are of the view that Baghel should be given the post because of his image as an aggressive leader in Opposition.

“As far as I know, Baghel is not interested in the post. I do not know whether he has expressed high command or not but he does not want any post in the party for sometime after the assembly elections results,” said a close aide of Baghel.

Meanwhile, a first-time MLA claimed that the party needs an aggressive leader in the assembly who can fight on issues and could point to the failures of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.

“Bhupesh Ji told me that he will not hold any post for sometime… I do not know the reason. I also told Kumari Selja Ji and Ajay Maken that Baghel is the right man for the post, but if he is not interested, what can we do?,” the MLA said.

Another Congress said that Patel should be given the post as he is young and the party’s focus should be on the second line of leadership.

Notably, after the Congress lost assembly elections, senior leader Ajay Maken was appointed observer to review the loss.

Last week, Maken and Selja – former minister and MP, held a review meeting in which all senior leaders of Congress were present. After the meeting, both leaders had a one-on-one meeting with all Congress MLAs to discuss the post of the Leader of the Opposition in the state.

“The name will be announced from Delhi in the next couple of days. Selja and Makan have taken the views of the local MLAs and now the high command will decide,” said a Congress leader.

In the 2023 assembly elections, while the BJP won 54 of the 90 seats, the Congress, which had won 68 seats in 2018, was reduced to 35 seats. The Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) managed to win one seat.