In battleground Chhattisgarh, why Cong is banking on Baghel and four other key faces

Bhupesh Baghel, Chief Minister

As the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) chief, Bhupesh Baghel was credited with spearheading the party’s efforts in the 2018 polls, when it ended the Raman Singh-led BJP’s 15-year rule.

As the Chief Minister, Baghel, 62, has become a popular leader in the state owing to several schemes in the last five years, with his government having spent Rs 1.75 lakh crore on public welfare.

Baghel’s political journey began in 1985 with the Congress. In 1990, he became a youth leader in Durg (Rural) and since 1993, he has been a five-time MLA from Patan and a three-time minister before becoming the CM in 2018.

Baghel’s confidence is reflected in his often direct approach, never shying away from answering questions from the media over raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or over the BJP’s allegations on corruption and non-implementation of Central schemes. He has used his soft-Hindutva stance and focus on regionalism to counter the BJP’s politics.

However, the Baghel government has been hit by multiple corruption allegations with the ED arresting, raiding or booking people close to him, including his former deputy secretary Saumya Chaurasia in the coal levy case. This was followed by the alleged Rs 2,000-crore liquor sale fraud and the alleged Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission selection fraud.

Amid these allegations, senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra showered praises on his leadership at a rally in Bastar, hinting that Baghel still enjoys the confidence of the Gandhis and will continue to be the party’s CM face.

For a fourth time, Baghel will face his distant relative and BJP Lok Sabha MP Vijay Baghel in Patan. He had lost to Vijay in 2008 but won in 2003 and 2013.

T S Singh Deo, Deputy CM

T S Singh Deo, the 70-year-old scion of the erstwhile Surguja royal family, has been associated with the Congress for 40 years. Members of his family, too, have been associated with the Congress prior to Independence and have since been fielded in the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Known to be a gentle speaker, Singh Deo recently landed in trouble for his comments praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which the BJP used to attack the Congress.

Singh Deo, alongside Baghel, was credited for the party’s 2018 victory. The party won every seat in the northern Surguja division’s tribal belt.

Singh Deo was among the contenders for the CM post in 2018 but lost out to Baghel. His supporters had floated the idea of Baghel and Singh Deo sharing the CM seat, though it never materialised. The differences over the CM post had created a rift in the party with Singh Deo publicly saying he may not contest elections.

The party tried to pacify him by making him Deputy CM just four months before the Assembly elections and naming him in the core election committee that decides ticket allocation.

While sources close to Singh Deo said he is still not content, the three-time MLA from Ambikapur has been actively campaigning for the party.

Charan Das Mahant, Speaker

Charan Das Mahant, 68, is a former Union minister and three-time Lok Sabha MP. In 1993, he was elected as an MLA from Janjgir Champa, his home district. His father, former state minister Bisahu Das Mahant, was the state party chief and one of the longest serving MLAs in undivided Madhya Pradesh.

In 1998, Charan Das Mahant contested and won the Lok Sabha polls from the Janjgir seat. In 2009, he won the Korba Lok Sabha seat for the third time but lost it by a narrow margin to BJP in 2014. In 2018, the party fielded him in the Assembly elections from Sakti, where he won by a 20% vote margin.

In 2013, after the Congress’s state leadership was killed in the Jhiram Ghati Naxal attack, then party president Sonia Gandhi had asked Mahant to once again take charge as the CPCC chief ahead of the Assembly polls, having previously held the post from 2004 to 2006.

Mahant was among the top OBC leaders in the running for the CM’s post in 2018, but sources said he later asked for the Assembly Speaker’s post and got it. Both Mahant and Baghel were proteges of former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh and served as his ministers in the undivided state.

This time, the BJP has fielded former MLA Khilawan Sahu against Mahant in Sakti.

Tamradhwaj Sahu, home minister

Tamradhwaj Sahu, 74, is the most senior leader in the Sahu community, which forms the majority of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Chhattisgarh. Sahu, a soft-spoken leader, was also among the front-runners for the CM post in 2018, but was later appointed the home minister.

A two-time president of the Sahu Samaj organisation in Chhattisgarh, he has been a key reason behind the Congress’s strong electoral performance among Sahu voters. This time, the party will again rely on him to ensure they win the OBC vote, which is a deciding factor in the state’s 51 general category seats. But he faces an uphill task with the BJP raking up the death of a Sahu youth in a communal incident in August in the minister’s home district of Bemetara.

The four-time MLA and two-time state minister was also the Lok Sabha MP from Durg in 2014. He worked his way up the ranks in Durg, from a village sarpanch and zila parishad chairman to an MLA. In 2018, he won the Assembly poll by a comfortable margin. This time, he will face the BJP’s Lalit Chandrakar, a first-timer.

Deepak Baij, MP and CPCC chief

Deepak Baij, 42, gained prominence in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when despite a Modi wave across the country he won the Naxal-affected Bastar seat by defeating sitting MP Dinesh Kashyap, son of four-time Bastar MP Baliram Kashyap.

Seen as a rising tribal leader, Baij is said to be close to Rahul Gandhi and known in the party as a grassroots worker. After winning the Chitrakot Assembly seat in 2013, he was re-elected with a bigger margin in 2018 but vacated the seat to contest the Lok Sabha election.

Owing to differences between Baghel and former CPCC chief Mohan Markam, a tribal leader, the latter was removed from the post and inducted into the state cabinet. With elections nearing, the party needed a tribal face for the 29 reserved seats and decided to name Baij as the CPCC chief in July.

With the BJP aggressively raking up the issue of alleged conversion in Bastar, it will be a litmus test for Baij’s leadership to turn the tide in favour of his party, which won all 12 seats in the Bastar district in the 2018 polls.

Though the party won Chitrakot in the bypolls after Baij vacated it, he has been fielded from the seat again this year. He will take on the BJP’s Vinayak Goyal, 46, who is the party’s divisional head from Tokapal in Bastar.