Chhattisgarh minister TS Singh Deo returns to Delhi amid power tussle with CM Baghel

While Baghel met senior Congress leaders separately on Friday, Singh Deo has been in and out of Delhi for the past three days.

Raipur: Conversations between Chhattisgarh’s top leaders and the party’s central leaders have started again amid reports of a power-sharing formula between Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and his cabinet colleague health minister TS Singh Deo, with the latter looking for clarity going forward, according to people familiar with the matter.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel with health minister TS Singh Deo.

While Baghel met senior leaders separately on Friday, Singh Deo has been in and out of the Capital for the past three days.

Last Friday, on the sidelines of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Delhi, chief minister Baghel separately met with senior party leaders, including general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Functionaries close to Baghel, however, denied that the meeting had anything to do with a possible change in guard. “Nothing about the power-sharing formula was discussed in the meeting on Saturday evening, nor was there any hint about it. The discussion was about the strategy of upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh,” the functionary said.

On Saturday, Singh Deo flew down to Delhi for a meeting with leaders in Delhi. Speaking to reporters at Raipur airport before leaving, Singh Deo characterised the visit as routine but said that he would call on the senior leadership. “It is a routine visit to Delhi... If I get time with senior Congress leaders of Delhi, I will definitely meet them...I called up Punia ji ( PL Punia ) but he said that he is outside Delhi… I will be there for two days and try to meet the leaders,” he said.

On Sunday, Singh Deo returned to Chhattisgarh after the death of four infants at the government medical college in Ambikapur, which is his constituency. “Singh Deo has cancelled all scheduled programmes... In view of the seriousness of the issue, the health minister has directed to send a special team of health departments from Raipur and Bilaspur to Ambikapur,” a statement issued by his office on Sunday said.

The health minister, however, was back in Delhi on Monday, with meetings possible over the next few days. “I believe that Singh Deo is trying to meet the party high command in Delhi and will definitely talk about the power-sharing formula. Some political development is expected in the next couple of days,” said a senior Congress leader from Chhattisgarh who asked not to be named.

On August 28, even as over 45 MLAs camped in Delhi, Baghel held a marathon meeting with the top brass including Rahul Gandhi, where Baghel seemed to have bought himself time, announcing that Gandhi would soon travel to Bastar on his invitation as chief minister. The next day, when Singh Deo returned, he said that he had spoken to the leadership too and they had kept a “decision safe”.

Since then, the matter has simmered both in Chhattisgarh and in Delhi, bookmarked by multiple MLAs arriving in Delhi at the start of October, and a war of words in Bilaspur, where supporters of Singh Deo alleged that they were being proceeded against by the police with bias.

People close to Singh Deo said that he has not put a timeline on returning for Chhattisgarh at this moment, and the attempt is to reach a sense of clarity for all sides, particularly with the reported two-and-a-half year deadline now long gone, and assembly elections in just over two years.

“Every week, rumours are rife about the power-sharing formula in Chhattisgarh… Everyone in the state is in confusion… It would be positive for Congress high command to send a concrete message and resolve this issue as soon as possible,” said Sudeip Shrivastava, a political commentator based in Chhattisgarh.

In December 2018, in the aftermath of a dominant Congress performance where the party won 68 of 90 seats, even as the party’s Delhi leadership sought to put out leadership fires in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh emerged as a problem too.

Four state leaders, Baghel, home minister Tamradhwaj Sahu, speaker Charan Das Mahant, and Singh Deo flew to Delhi, all eyeing the chief minister’s post. As Mahant settled for speaker, friction between Baghel and Singh Deo meant that Sahu first emerged as the front-runner; but pushed by the idea that a third leader would take the top position, Baghel and Singh Deo, along with Punia and Rahul Gandhi, reportedly arrived at a power-sharing arrangement over the next five years.