Obvious absence of a mechanism to resolve endless fissures between its satraps, the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh appears to be staring at widening distrust among the ministers and other leaders. A sense of uneasiness seems to be creeping within the 3-year-old Congress dispensation with several prominent leaders including ministers grumbling over the mounting bureaucratic sway in the government.

Nevertheless, most leaders barring a few, have so far maintained a stoic silence. Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management Jai Singh Agrawal, blew the lid off the searing anguish among the party leaders. Agrawal, a one time trusted loyalist of Dr. Charan Das Mahant, shot off a strongly worded letter against Korba Collector Ranu Sahu for her alleged wrong-headedness and massive corruption.

BJP was quick to grab the opportunity and it’s legal lead Naresh Gupta lodged a complaint in the Primes Minister’s Office and Home Ministry based on allegations levelled by minister Agrawal. “Bhupesh Ji, your ministers are levelling the charge of commission and corruption against a district collector. When will you decide on the issue on the spot? Entire Congress government is being run on 10% commission”, former Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh tweeted.

Agrawal’s one-time mentor, assembly speaker Dr Mahant also expressed his displeasure over the way Ranu Sahu functions. Interestingly, however, Pali Tanakhar MLA Mohit Ram Kerketta, another Mahant loyalist, defended the belligerent 2010 batch IAS officer, known for her rudeness and arrogance.
A series of political blitzkrieg that hit the ground running in August last year when health minister T S Singh Deo began asserting his much-hyped turn under the rotational CM formula reached between him and then Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in December 2018 in the presence of Congress scion Rahul Gandhi. Since then, Deo along with his supporters, have been at the receiving end of those at the helm of affairs in the government. Almost similar is the story of leaders close to assembly speaker Dr. Charan Das Mahant. Growing fault lines within the government could trigger headwinds for the party slated for assembly polls in November next year.

Education minister Dr. Premsai Singh has been under fire for a long time for his closeness to Singh Deo. The tribal leader, however, refrained from voicing his anger in the public. But Bilaspur MLA Shailesh Pandey, a close Singh Deo aide, openly aired his concerns. Even PCC president and Kondagaon MLA Mohan Markam is highly disregarded and humiliated for his proximity to Singh Deo, despite his repeated display of balancing act.

Singh Deo has been subjected to humiliations and political alienation with the bureaucrats ignoring and disregarding him altogether. But the soft-spoken erstwhile Sarguja royal maintained silence, sticking to the only solace in his mind that Congress scion Rahul Gandhi would keep his word to bequeath him with the top seat in the state.

Singh Deo kicked off his statewide tour on May 4 and faced nerve-breaking humiliations by his government during the first leg of his torrential trip to Bastar to assess the development activities of the departments he heads. His bête noire Chief Minister Baghel also embarked on a similar parallel tour from Singh Deo’s traditional fiefdom of Sarguja in northern Chhattisgarh.
District authorities, Congress MLAs, and prominent local and national media outlets glossed over the Singh Deo event but created a great hype around CM Baghel’s‘ tour. Singh Deo has so far been successful in drawing sizeable Congress workers into his programs every day despite clueless party MLAs making it a point to neglect him. Deo already had anticipation that he was heading for a bumpy ride, and goings may get tough for him, days before he set off his tour from Dantewada in southern Chhattisgarh.

District Collectors and Superintendent of Police in Dantewada, Jagdalpur, Kanker, and Dhamtari neither attended any meeting called by Singh Deo nor did they receive him which is mandatory according to the protocol. Bureaucrats of any standing cannot commit such a grievous humiliation to a senior minister unless signalled amnesty from their political masters, socio-political observer Ashok Tomar said.CM Baghel threw his weight behind the erring officers saying that it has been the practice since undivided Madhya Pradesh that Collectors and SPs receive the Chief Minister only.

The state government maintained from the beginning that it would not be able to provide Singh Deo with a chopper for his statewide tour. He, therefore, managed a private chopper on his resources.