CONGRESS PURSUES PATH OF SELF-ANNIHILATION IN CHHATTISGARH

Congress’ ambition to dislodge the Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh is likely to hit major roadblocks emerging from within the party. Party leaders have alleged that poor candidate selection, giving tickets allegedly in lieu of monetary considerations and controversy generated by its own state chief Bhupesh Baghel are likely to turn the tide in Singh’s favour and pave the way for his return to power in the state where he has been the Chief Minister for 15 years.

The Sunday Guardian has accessed audio recordings of conversations between different state Congress leaders, in which it is clear that many of the aspirants, whose names have been sent to the party’s national president Rahul Gandhi by leaders entrusted with the task of short-listing probable nominees, have been chosen on the basis of criteria other than “win-ability”. The recordings clearly show that tickets are being distributed for considerations in “cash or kind”.

In one such conversation, a top state leader is heard boasting to a party functionary about how his “recommendations” are never vetoed by Gandhi’s office, and thus if his demands are fulfilled, he will make sure that the functionary gets a ticket to contest the elections. Similarly, in a conversation between two party functionaries, one of them is heard telling the other, how some aspirants were exploiting the “weak moral compass” of a top state leader to extract tickets.

Congress’ state communications head, Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, however, denied any wrongdoing during candidate selection and said that the ruling BJP was “spreading such rumours as it has realised that it is going to lose the elections”. He claimed,