Chhattisgarh: Aspiring Chief Minister TS Singh Deo Says ‘Won’t Join BJP, Won’t Form New Party’

Senior Congress leader and Chhattisgarh Health minister TS Singh Deo, who has consistently claimed that he was promised the Chief Minister’s post for the second half of the five-year tenure of the Congress government, is still resenting the snub given to him by incumbent Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

Assembly elections are due in Chhattisgarh in November 2023.

When asked whether he would consider joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said that he wouldn’t do so as that would be against his political ideology and philosophy. Regarding the option of forming a new party, he said that he does not want to do so as it would cost him a lot of money.

Further, he said, “What course my politics takes from here depends on the future.”

The money argument is however not being bought by his detractors as Deo, who is also the titular Maharaja of Surguja state, is the wealthiest MLA in Chhattisgarh with assets worth over Rs 500 crore.

Deo’s family has been with the Congress since 1983 and he himself has been a Congress MLA from Ambikapur since 2008. During the tenure of the last BJP government, he was the Leader of Opposition in the Chhattisgarh Assembly.