Chhattisgarh Elections 2023: Congress relies on old guard to deliver the goods

Congress relies on old guard as key faces in Chhattisgarh Assembly polls as the party has now announced the names of 90 candidates for the polls, which will be held in two phases, on November 7 and November 17. Congress aims to retain the government riding on its plank of welfare schemes and regionalism

On October 22, Chhattisgarh’s ruling Congress party added seven names to its list of candidates, and released a final line-up of 90 candidates for the assembly elections to be held in November.

The state will vote in two phases, on November 7 and 17. The votes will be counted on December 3, along with those for the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Mizoram.

Also read: Congress has an edge in Chhattisgarh elections

The party, which is seeking a second straight term in the mineral-rich state on its welfare plank, has stuck to tried and tested names, with Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel leading the charge. Here are the brief profiles of the four senior-most Congress leaders in the fray:

Bhupesh Baghel

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel (62) has been credited with introducing several welfare schemes, such as the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana under which farmers, who grow maize, kodo, kutki, soyabean, arhar and sugarcane, get Rs 9,000 per acre. Baghel is seeking re-election from his Patan seat.

The government claims to have spent Rs 1.75 lakh crore on public welfare in the last five years.

Baghel has also been promoting regional festivals, sports, art, and culture. He recently ordered a statue of ‘Chhattisgarh Mahtari’ (a mother figure representing the state) be put up in every district. His journey with Congress began in 1985 and in 1990, he became a youth leader in rural Durg.

TS Singh Deo

Deputy Chief Minister TS Singh Deo was first elected to the state's legislative assembly in 2008. The titular Maharaja of Surguja was born on October 31, 1952. He is known to be the richest of the state’s MLAs.

Deo was among those credited with Congress's victory in 2018. The party won every seat in the northern Surguja division’s tribal belt, and Deo was one of the contenders for the CM’s post. Apparently, there was an unwritten formula of rotational chief ministership, with Baghel and Deo each having the seat for 2.5 years. But later Baghel denied any such pact, leading to a power tussle between the two.

In June this year, the Congress brass announced Deo’s elevation as Deputy Chief Minister in a meeting held to discuss poll strategies for the state elections.

Deo will contest from the Ambikapur constituency. He has won the seat thrice since 2008. The 70-year-old has been associated with the Congress for 40 years.

Tamradhwaj Sahu

Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu (74) was also among the contenders for the CM’s post in 2018. He is the seniormost leader of the Sahu community, which comprises the majority of the other backward classes (OBCs) in the state, and is said to be the key reason why the Sahu community is a Congress vote bank.

Sahu will contest from Durg Rural. But this time he faces a challenge, 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.

Charan Das Mahant

Speaker Charan Das Mahant (68), a former union minister and three-time Lok Sabha MP, has been re-nominated from his Sakti seat. He was among the top OBC leaders in the running for the CM’s post in 2018. In June this year, Mahant was appointed the Chairperson of the state Congress’s Election Campaign Committee.

Mahant is seen as a “neutral face” accepted by various factions in the state. In 1998, he 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 to BJP in 2014. In 2018, the party fielded him in the assembly elections from Sakti, which he won by a 20 percent margin.