Cong reaches consensus on having tribal CM in Chhatisgarh

NEW DELHI, OCT 4: Faced with an upsurge of tribal chauvinism among its MLAs in Chhattisgarh, the Congress high command here has arrived at...

NEW DELHI, OCT 4: Faced with an upsurge of tribal chauvinism among its MLAs in Chhattisgarh, the Congress high command here has arrived at a consensus that its first chief minister in the newly-created state should be a tribal. With less than a month to go for Chhattisgarh to come into being, hectic lobbying has begun among tribal leaders for making it to the top slot.

Party sources here said that party chief Sonia Gandhi has indicated to her close advisors that she is in favour of appointing a tribal chief minister. As a step towards evolving a consensus candidate, Sonia has informally asked senior leaders from the state such as Madhavrao Scindia, Arjun Singh, Motilal Vora and Kamal Nath to suggest their choice.

As many as 24 of the 48 MLAs in the party are tribals and the last few weeks have witnessed these MLAs getting together in a show of solidarity to install a chief minister from their community. What has compelled them to stick largely together, say sources, is the realisation that not doing so would only lead to the appointment of a non-tribal “consensus” candidate like Motilal Vora or Vidya Charan Shukla, both senior party leaders from the state.

The concerted bid to lobby with the high command for a tribal CM began last month when all the tribal MLAs from Chhattisgarh arrived unannounced in Delhi for an impromptu meeting with Sonia — and all of them signed a memorandum urging her to nominate a CM from their community.

What has further strengthened their case, say party sources here, is the fact that the BJP, which is the main opposition party in the state, is already actively playing the tribal card there. The Congress cannot risk a split or desertion of its MLAs since it commands only a wafer thin majority (of three MLAs) in the 90-member assembly.

The fact that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh — who had initially voiced his reservations on a tribal CM for Chhattisgarh — has also now come round to supporting a candidate from that community assumes significance in this context. Digvijay was backing non-tribals Nandkumar Patel and Ravindra Choubey for the CM’s post but after gauging the mood of the tribal MLAs and the party high command, he has tactfully shifted track.

Among the top contenders from the tribal community for the top job in Chattisgarh are party spokesperson Ajit Jogi, former Union Minister Arvind Netam, Rajya Sabha MP Jhumak Lal Bhedia, MP Jails Minister Mahendra Karma and MP Revenue Minister Prem Sai Singh.

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Jogi, a known Sonia loyalist, is said to be the frontrunner among them, being more high-profile than his competitors. His bureaucratic background is an additional qualification but the fact that he is not an MLA and also lost last year’s Lok Sabha elections is being used against him by his detractors.

His nearest rival, Netam, is one of the senior-most tribal leaders from the state. But he has been under a cloud for sometime, with his name figuring prominently in the multi-crore timber scam in Chhattisgarh. Moreover, the fact that he left the party to join the BSP in 1996 (and rejoined only last year) will work to his disadvantage. Others like Karma and Singh are relatively less known but are in contention since they are MLAs and ministers from the region