Curated By: Sheen Kachroo
Last Updated: December 16, 2023, 22:40 IST
He has been elected twice to the Chhattisgarh assembly in 2018 and 2023. (Image: X/ Dr. Charan Das Mahant)
The Congress president has approved the proposal to continue Deepak Baij as the president of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee, as per the release by AICC general secretary K C Venugopal
The Congress party has appointed Charan Das Mahant, a veteran leader and former speaker of the Chhattisgarh assembly, as the leader of its legislative party in the state. This decision comes after the party faced a significant defeat in the recent assembly elections at the hands of the BJP.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the proposal for the appointment of Mahant, a fifth-term MLA, as the CLP leader of Chhattisgarh with immediate effect.
The Congress president has approved the proposal to continue Deepak Baij as the president of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee, as per the release by AICC general secretary K C Venugopal.
The new CLP leader is the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.
WHO IS CHARAN DAS MAHANT
Mahant, a seasoned politician who had served as the Speaker in the outgoing Chhattisgarh legislative assembly, retained the Sakti seat by defeating BJP’s Khilawan Sahu by 12,395 votes in the recent elections.
He belongs to the Other Backward Class (OBC) community and was also among the front-runners for the post of Chhattisgarh chief minister along with Bhupesh Baghel, TS Singh Deo, and Tamradhwaj Sahu when Congress won the assembly elections in 2018.
Mahant was elected as an MLA thrice in the undivided Madhya Pradesh and went on to serve as Home and Public Relations Department Minister in the Madhya Pradesh government (1995-1998).
He has been elected twice to the Chhattisgarh assembly in 2018 and 2023.
He was elected as a member of the Lok Sabha thrice in 1998, 1999, and 2009. He was appointed as Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government in 2011.
Mahant had also served as Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president in 2013 for around six months. He had been the working president of the party’s state unit many times between 2004 and 2013, but could not bring the party to power both in the 2008 and 2013 assembly elections.
State Congress president and party MP Baij lost the recent assembly elections from the Chitrakot segment against BJP’s Vinayak Goyal by a margin of 8,370 votes.
The Congress was routed in the assembly elections in the state with the BJP winning 54 out of the 90 seats, reducing the erstwhile ruling party to 35 seats.
The newly-elected MLAs of the party on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution authorising Kharge to pick its leader in Chhattisgarh.
(with PTI inputs)
