‘Do not feel like fighting elections, will discuss with supporters’: Chhattisgarh minister T S Singh Deo

Senior Chhattisgarh Congress leader T S Singh Deo said on Thursday that he does not feel like contesting the upcoming Assembly elections but will take a call after speaking with his supporters.

“I have not taken a decision till now…this time I have not made up my mind yet on fighting the elections. Before this, in 2008, 2013 and 2018, I felt like fighting the elections and I had made up my mind. This time I do not feel like fighting the elections but I will make it official after discussing this with my supporters,” Deo, who is the state health and family welfare minister and a three-time MLA from Ambikapur constituency in Surguja district, told the media.

Deo has been caught in a power tussle with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel ever since the Congress trounced the BJP to form the government in 2018. A CM contender, Deo saw himself pushed to the sidelines by Baghel, and a rotational formula to make him CM after two-and-a-half years never materialised.

Earlier this year, Deo relinquished the charge of the crucial Panchayat and Rural Development portfolios — a move set to push the state unit of the Congress into further turmoil. A section of the leaders has consistently claimed that after the Congress came to power in the state in December 2018, Gandhi had conveyed to Baghel and Deo that the post would be shared, with Baghel holding it for the first two-and-a-half years. Baghel, however, has repeatedly denied any such agreement.