If Cong wins in Chhattisgarh, Baghel will be ‘first in line’ for CM post, says Deputy

New Delhi: Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister TS Singhdeo on Sunday said the Congress would fight the assembly polls under a “collective leadership” helmed by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and if the party wins, Baghel would be “first in line” to be considered for the CM’s post.

Singhdeo said if an incumbent chief minister has not been removed, it means the party maintains its belief in that person being able to lead the team to victory and after the win “why should the captain be changed”.

He also predicted the Congress was likely to bag another resounding mandate in the 90-member assembly, saying some are projecting 75-plus seats for his party but his estimate is anywhere between 60 to 75-plus.

The Congress had won 68 seats in the 2018 assembly polls. Asked if tensions between Baghel and him are a thing of the past after he was made the Deputy Chief Minister last month, Singhdeo said, “There was no real bitterness or enmity, we (Baghel and him) were working together.

There was this issue of time sharing, two-and-a-half years, I think that was weighing on our minds as well as on the minds of everybody associated with the two of us.

That time has gone by. Even when those matters were in discussion, we were still performing to the best of our ability.”

On whether he felt a sense of betrayal for not getting two-and-a-half years as the Chief Minister, he said, “I don’t see it as a betrayal. I see it as a decision which the high command takes, it is their call. I cannot become the Chief Minister, it is the high command, on the feedback it has, that gives designated roles to all of us.”

“There is no betrayal as it is the call which the high command has to take and we abide by it,” Singhdeo added.

Asked whether he being made the deputy CM was a climb down from an earlier position or a progression, Singhdeo said he was, on protocol, already number two in the cabinet. “We have these official protocols. So the CM had given me the protocol after him. He was number one and I was number 2 and Tamradhwaj Sahu ji was number 3 etc. There were 13 of us including the CM. I am still number 2 with an added designation.”