KORBA: Chhattisgarh Congress leader Jai Singh Agrawal on Friday said his party lost the Assembly polls in the state because power had been centralised and ministers were not given their due rights, the statement being seen as an attack on outgoing chief minister Bhupesh Baghel.
He also pointed fingers at Baghel over the lack of collective leadership, focus only on rural seats, lack of "actual survey" ahead of polls and "the atmosphere of tussle" in the party.
Overturning most exit poll predictions, the Bharatiya Janata Party won the state Assembly polls by winning 54 seats, relegating the ruling Congress to second place with 35 seats in the 90-member House.
Agrawal, among the nine ministers in the Baghel cabinet who lost, also claimed his party's government could not respect the mandate people have given it in 2018. The Congress had won the 2018 polls emphatically by winning 68 seats and ending the BJP's 15-year rule.
"In 2018, then president of the state unit of the party (Bhupesh) Baghel sahab, then leader of the opposition (T S) Singh Deo ji and other senior leaders had contested polls under collective leadership. But this time the elections had become centralised," Agrawal claimed.
"In the five years, various works were done by the government while some works remained to be done. But our government could not respect the mandate which we had received (in 2018). The ministers did not get the power they were supposed to get. One power remained centralized and worked with some selected people for the entire five years. The atmosphere of tussle persisted," he further claimed.
Raising questions over the Congress' focus on farmers, Agrawal said the party lagged behind in urban seats, including Korba, due to this.
"It seems our 'mukhiya' (leader, an apparent reference to the CM) believed we would win all rural seats and there would not be much need for urban seats," said Agrawal who lost from Korba to the BJP's Lakhanlal Devangan.
Agrawal claimed administrative and police officials disrupted development works and allowed crime to flourish in the Korba district. He named collectors and superintendents of police who were posted in Korba and accused them of indulging in such acts.
"Discussions were never held on the surveys (for candidate selection) which were conducted by the head of the government. I had submitted a revised report on Korba to the CM (Baghel) saying the survey you have carried out is false. Had they carried out an actual survey, then I feel our party and the government would have sensed (the possible outcome of polls)," Agrawal said.