Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh: No tribal leader is a front-runner

New Delhi, Dec 12: The Congress high command yet to take call on the new Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. Surprsisingly , no tribal leader is a front-runner to be chief minister of the tribal state. Leaders from Kurmi, Sahu and Thakur community were face of the campaign and now probable candidate for the CM post.

Tamardhwaj Sahu: The 69-year-old MP from Durg is a strong OBC leader and a member of the influential Sahu community. He contested from Durg (Rural) assembly constituency, He is the lone Lok Sabha member from the state. He won the Indian general election in 2014. He started his political career in the late 1990s, when he was first elected as an MLA in 1998 from Dhamdha constituency in erstwhile Madhya Pradesh. He was elected as an MLA twice again - in 2003 and 2008 from Dhamdha and Bemetara seats, respectively. Sahu served as a cabinet minister under when Ajit Jogi was chief minister from 2000 to 2003 after the state was formed and Congress was in power in the state.

TS Singhdeo: He is a member of Indian National Congress and the current Leader of Opposition in Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly since 3 January 2014. He is an elected member of Chhattisgarh Assembly from Ambikapur He was the richest candidate in the 2013 Assembly Elections. Singh Deo defeated BJP's Anurag Singh Deo by 39,624 votes to retain Ambikapur. In the past, three leaders of opposition, who had contested the assembly polls after serving their term, had failed to get re-elected. He busted the jinx that the sitting Leader of Opposition does not get re-elected to the Chhattisgarh assembly.

Bhupesh Baghel: He is President of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee since October 2014. Baghel belongs to the Kurmi community, which makes up around 14% of the state's electorate. His assembly constituency is Patan (District Durg). Baghel was appointed a minister of state in Digvijay Singh's cabinet (Public Grievance Dept. attached to the CM) in December 1998 and promoted as Minister of Transport in December 1999. He was appointed Chairman of MP State Road Transport Corporation in January 2000. When the state of Chhattisgarh was created by the Government of India in November 2000, Baghel became First Minister for Revenue, Public Health Engineering and relief work (until 2003).