Tug of war in Cong for leader of opposition

Raipur, December 14

While Congress leadership is in deep trance after the party’s third defeat in a row in Chhattisgarh assembly polls, the State unit’s factions, who were dormant during election period, have come into action again and this time the reason for their confrontation is coveted post of leader of opposition (LOP) in Vidhan Sabha.

The party in State is dominated by two factions – one belong to former CM Ajit Jogi and the other to organisation itself. Both the factions have their own list of candidates for the post of LOP. They have now started lobbying for their candidates at New Delhi to keep equilibrium in their side in the party.

Although, as compared to previous polls, Congress managed to win one additional seat this time with total count of 39, it failed to counter anti-incumbency factor in constituencies of its own 35 re-contesting MLAs including LOP Ravindra Choubey. Consequently, the party has left with only few experienced MLAs with oratory skills and knowledge to take up ruling BJP in State assembly.

In previous term, the ruling party faced attack from several opposition members in the House including LOP Ravindra Choubey, Ajit Jogi, Nandkumar Patel, Mohammad Akbar, Dharamjeet Singh, Paresh Bagbahra, Agni Chandrakar, etc.

As Congress will be missing these weapons in the House for next five years, it would have to train new legislators to keep the ruling party members on their toes by raising all the issues strongly. For this, it would require a dynamic person who could lead from the front and the answer to this lies in lists of both Jogi and organisational factions.

In Jogi’s list, the name of his spouse Dr Renu is on top. Dr Renu will represent the House for third consecutive time. She was earlier thought to be potential chief ministerial candidate from Congress after Jogi himself. Jogi is also likely to project the name of tribal MLA Kawasi Lakhma and few others from Sarguja and Bastar who have approached him after poll results.

From organisation, Satyanarayan Sharma, Bhupesh Baghel, Dhanendra Sahu and TS Singhdeo are frontrunners for LOP post. While, Satyanarayan Sharma will return in the House after a long gap of ten years, Bhupesh Baghel and Dhanendra Sahu are back again after five years.

Among the three, Baghel was more active in last five years with different roles and responsibilities in the organisation. He had even dragged CM Raman Singh’s names directly in a couple of issues and taken the matter to the court. TS Singhdeo too has fair chances of getting the LOP job for his hard work that helped Congress increasing its tally in Sarguja division by winning two additional seats and grabbing total seven out of 14.