Crisis Averted As Congress Empowers Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel To Take On Yogi In Poll-Bound UP

The Congress party’s Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who broke the political pact (power sharing arrangement of 2.5 years each) with state colleague TS Singh Deo, is staying firmly put in his chair. Even as the scheduled 2.5-year milestone was reached and Singh Deo invoked the pact for the CM’s chair, Baghel broke his word, even flying a dozen party MLAs to New Delhi in a sort of public posturing of his political clout in the state. Lo and behold, the party high command lost its resolve to go through with the power transition at least for the immediate future. A senior political leader from New Delhi told Short Post: “Baghel was able to get a recharge for a year more at least as Rahul Gandhi has additionally appointed him as Congress incharge for the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh polls. After his fresh appointment, Baghel will use his political acumen and government machinery in Chhattisgarh to impact BJP prospects in UP. Will the Gandhis now remove him from his CM post and risk their own UP prospects?” Seems unlikely. However, the Congress is known to pull a rabbit (read Charanjit Singh Channi) out of its hat at the last moment as in Punjab when the battle between Navjot Singh Siddhu and Captain Amrinder Singh threatened to boil over. It will be interesting to see Singh Deo plotting a silent jockeying for power.