Chhattisgarh: 'Have not really made up my mind to contest the elections this time,' says Health Minister T S Singh Deo

The politics of Chhattisgarh has heated up after the State Health Minister and Veteran Congress leader T S Singh Deo said that he really has not made up his mind to contest the upcoming 2023 assembly elections.

Singh Deo made the above remark while talking to the media persons at Gandhi Stadium in Surguja district on Thursday. The health minister was on tour of his assembly constituency Ambikapur in the district.

He said, "I have really not made up my mind to contest the elections this time, otherwise in all the elections that have taken place till now, in 2008, 2013 and 2018, it was in my mind that if I want to contest the elections then I would contest after asking the public. But this time I don't have the same desire to contest elections as I used to have earlier."

'But whatever I do, I will do it after asking the people,' he added.Earlier, around over a week ago, Singh Deo said that he would take some crucial decisions before the assembly polls 2023. He made the remark at a meeting of the Development Authority in Surajpur.

Singh Deo's statements assume significance amid his row with Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

Earlier, after the Baghel government completed two-and-a-half years in office in June 2021, the supporters of TS Singh Deo raised the issue of rotational chief ministership. Though Congress never talked about the two-and-a-half-year formula in Chhattisgarh, the supporters of Deo claim that this was promised.

Congress won the assembly polls held in December 2018 with a thumping majority. Then, the state Congress president Bhupesh Baghel was made the chief minister. TS Singh Deo was the head of the manifesto committee in the election. Supporters of both Baghel and TS have claimed that the party's victory was due to their leaders.

( With inputs from ANI )