Assembly Elections 2018: Bhupesh Baghel, TS Singh Deo or Charan Das Mahant – Who Will be Chhattisgarh CM? Decision Likely Today

Congress ended the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) 15-year rule in Chhattisgarh in the recently concluded Assembly Elections 2018 by winning 68 of the 90 seats.

New Delhi: The name of new Chhattisgarh chief minister is likely to be announced on Saturday, after four days of hectic parleys of top contenders for the post – TS Singh Deo, Bhupesh Baghel, Charan Das Mahant -with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in the national capital. The decision on who will be the next CM of Naxal-hit state will be taken at Congress legislature party meeting, a party leader claimed on Friday.

Earlier on Friday, Rahul Gandhi had met four senior leaders of the state unit of the party — Bhupesh Baghel, TS Singh Deo, Tamradhwaj Sahu and Charan Das Mahant — in Delhi and held discussions with them.

All four leaders along with party observer Mallikarjun Karge and Congress state in-charge PL Punia will arrive in Chhattisgarh on Saturday by a special plane. Subsequently, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting will be held at the party’s state office Rajiv Bhawan during which the name of the chief minister will be announced.

The development comes in the backdrop of Ashok Gehlot being appointed as Rajasthan Chief Minister and Sachin Pilot his deputy. In Madhya Pradesh, on Thursday, the party named Kamal Nath as the CM. He will be sworn-in on December 17, Monday.

The Congress registered a thumping victory in the Chhattisgarh Assembly Election 2018, thus bringing an end to the 15-year rule of the Raman Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. It won 68 seats in the 90-member Assembly, while the BJP got only 15 seats. On the other hand, former chief minister Ajit Jogi-led Janata Congress Chhattisgarh won five seats and his ally Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) bagged two seats.

In the recently concluded Assembly Elections 2018, the Congress emerged victorious on 114 seats, two short of the magic figure but the party got the support by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) in Madhya Pradesh. While in Rajasthan, the party which won 99 seats has received the support of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to reach the majority mark of 100.