Chhattisgarh, along with four other states, will go to the assembly elections by the end of this year. Chhattisgarh saw a brief intra-party clash two years ago when current Health Minister TS Singh Deo reportedly revolted claiming shared Chief Ministership formula of 2.5 years each for him and Baghel. However, while there was a flare-up between both leaders, Singh Deo never openly claimed the position. Now, with only five months left for the state assembly elections, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has made a big remark on the next Congress CM face.
Speaking to a news channel, Baghel said that traditionally Congress fights elections in the face of the sitting Chief Minister. When posed about him being the Chhattisgarh poll campaign and CM face, Baghel said that the face is clear not only in his state but in Rajasthan as well. "You know the CM face in Rajasthan as well....Gehlot ji is the senior leader and he will be Congress party's face. Any party, be it Congress or the BJP, mostly it's the CM who is made the poll campaign face. When in opposition, then the election is fought on the face of collective leadership," said Baghel.
Baghel, however, maintained a caution and said that it's the work of the party high command whether they delcare him a face or not.
It may be recalled that the Congress party has already intensified structural reorganisation works given the assembly polls and next year's Lok Sabha elections. According to reports, there is a large possibility of reshuffling of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) which is the party's top decision-making body. The CWC rejig has been pending for a long under new party president Mallikarjun Kharge.
In February this year, the Congress had held a three-day plenary session in Chhattisgarh and the Steering Committee had unanimously decided to authorise Kharge to nominate all members of the working committee (CWC) and thus election is not required for CWC member selection. Besides the CWC expansion, the Congress is also focusing on a rejig in several state units and also preparing for the assembly polls in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana.
