Even as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on December 8 held a meeting to review the party’s recent power-shifting electoral loss in Chhattisgarh, a member of the outgoing Bhupesh Baghel Cabinet has targeted Mr. Baghel for the loss.
After the meeting — that was held in Delhi and was attended by the top national leaders as well as those from the State unit, including Mr. Baghel — Kumari Selja, the AICC in-charge of Chhattisgarh, expressed disappointment while also listing out some factors that the party considers as positive. She, however, did not offer any specific comment on what led to the party not only losing a mandate, but also its strength in the Assembly shrinking to less than half (35) of what it had when the elections were held (71).
“We had a trustworthy government. We also won the trust of the people. We lost the elections. We could not form the government; we are disappointed but not discouraged. There are many reasons. We are reviewing them in detail and all the people… all the colleagues together have assured the high command, our top leaders that of course it will be a little less than our expectations… that the government may not be formed, but the confidence of the people we haven’t lost and people still look up to us,” Ms. Selja told journalists after the meeting.
“But at the same time I would also say that any survey... be it your national media, be it regional media... be it any agency, everyone had said that in Chhattisgarh we are going to win the elections. Perhaps to some extent you were proved right, because our vote percentage has not decreased much. Our vote percentage has remained the same as compared to last time, which is no small thing,” she said.
But on a day the meeting was held, Jai Singh Agrawal, one of the nine Ministers to lose the Assembly polls, openly came out against Mr. Baghel, accusing him of centralisation of power and running the show with his close aides.
‘Atmosphere of tussle’
“Our government could not properly respect the mandate we received [in 2018]. The Ministers did not get the power they were supposed to get. One force remained centralised and worked with some selected forces for the whole five years, which was an atmosphere of tussle,” he said.
Mr. Agrawal further alleged that the administrative officials and police officers were obstructing development work, mentioning the names of IPS officer Abhishek Meena and Ranu Sahu (a bureaucrat currently in jail due to her involvement in the alleged liquor scam, according to the Directorate of Enforcement). Notably, corruption allegations were one of the main components of the BJP’s successful campaign in Chhattisgarh, paving the way for its return to power with a positive vote swing of 13% and victory in 54 seats in the 90-member Assembly.
Mr. Agrawal also questioned the impact of Mr. Baghel’s farmer-centric approach on the urban seats such as Korba (a seat that he represented in the previous Assembly. The BJP won all 19 urban seats).
Questioning the ticket distribution formula and the surveys on the basis of which the selections were made, he alleged that there was foul play in ticket distribution.
“I had submitted a revised report on Korba saying that the survey you have carried out is false. I had told this to the honourable Chief Minister and handed him that four-page report [prepared by Mr. Agrawal]. Had they carried out a truthful survey even after that, then I feel our party and the government would have sensed…,” he said.
While other leaders such as former Ministers T.S. Singh Deo and Amarjeet Bhagat, or PCC president Deepak Baij, too, have made comments on the loss, they have refrained from pointing fingers. While Mr. Bhagat has hinted towards infighting, Mr. Singh Deo — who hails from Sarguja where the Congress faced a rout having won all 14 the last time — compared the loss to Indian cricket team going down to Australia in the recently concluded ICC Men’s Cricket One Day International World Cup.
Earlier, in a response to a question on allegations surrounding the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in elections, Mr. Baghel wondered why such questions irritated the BJP that rules the Centre. Mr. Singh Deo, on the other hand, said it was not right to blame the EVMs after the loss but that he was not in favour of EVMs. Notably, like Congress leaders elsewhere, Mr. Baghel has been critical of the EVMs after adverse results as during his tenure the Congress won five by-elections as well.
