RAIPUR: After the poor show in the recently held Lok Sabha Elections, the Chhattisgarh Congress has decided to make their legislators pay the price for securing just two seats out of 11 in the state.
The hopes of over 50 Congress MLAs who kept their aspirations high for getting placed in the government-owned corporations and boards stand shattered following the decision taken by the Congress executive committee.
Senior leaders from AICC who attended the introspection meetings for Lok Sabha elections defeat stood by the party’s declaration. There are 68 Congress legislators in the 90-member House.
Including the chief minister Bhupesh Baghel there are 12 ministers with one post lying vacant, which might go to the party legislator who could outsmart others in the race. Not just the Congress MLAs but those party candidates who lost the polls would also be excluded from getting such posts, as the party believed they already were offered the opportunity.
At least 126 plum posts in the state corporations and boards beside the 200-odd posts in various government committees are to be filled up. With just 15 MLAs BJP suffered a humiliating defeat in the Assembly election. But the saffron party bounced back in the Lok Sabha polls winning 9 of 11 seats in Chhattisgarh.
After the Assembly polls 2018, the BJP that ruled the state for 15 years, had initially blamed the party workers but the Congress had apparently fixed the accountability on their elected leaders, who the party believes failed deliver on the expected lines.
“During the review meetings there was no discussion on the damage control exercise but the assessment over the performance of the party leaders. They were judged by the poor results in their respective areas. The party cadres who worked devotedly for the organisation will be rewarded”, a senior Congress spokesperson told the New Indian Express.
The move is equally intended to boost the morale of the party workers ahead of the civic body elections due later this year. The senior Congress leaders allegedly distanced themselves from the organisation during the Lok Sabha polls leading to lack of effective coordination with the party cadres and consequently faced the poll debacle.
Some senior Congress MLAs however are eyeing for nearly a dozen parliamentary secretaries likely to be appointed in coming months.