Raipur, Dec 19
Former chief minister of Chhattisgarh Raman Singh was on Tuesday elected as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Outgoing speaker and present Leader of Opposition Charan Das Mahant moved the proposal for the election of Singh as the Speaker and Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel as well as other MLAs gave their mandate to the BJP leader.
After taking oath as the Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker, Singh said, “I shall discharge my responsibility to the best of my ability. I congratulate all MLAs.”
Describing himself as an ordinary worker of the BJP, Singh added, “I would like to thank Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji who made this state. We will carry forward the principles and traditions of Guru Ghasidas ji”. After Singh’s election, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai said, “I congratulate all MLAs. I thank Charan Das Mahant and CM Bhupesh Baghel who continued with the tradition. He has been an MLA, MP, and a Union minister. It’s my pleasure to work with him.”
As a mark of respect, Congress leader Mahant walked with Singh, the three-time chief minister of Chhattisgarh, to the Speaker’s seat. While congratulating Singh later, Mahant said, “The Opposition (35 Congress MLAs and one MLA from the Gondwana Gantantra Party) has chosen you which shows our culture. In the Assembly, it is not important if we are the ruling party or the Opposition, it is important to be fair. We were good friends when we both were Members of Parliament.
You are a good human being and your love for Chhattisgarh is known”.
Outgoing chief minister Bhupesh Baghel said, “Mahant ji used to be fair with the BJP MLAs, whose number came down from 15 to 13. We are 35 MLAs, not less, and hope the tradition will continue.
” In the recently concluded Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, the BJP, which was decimated in the 2018 state poll by winning just 15 seats, smoothly sailed back to power with 54 seats.
Singh, who became a seven-time MLA from Rajnandgaon in 2023, is the longest-serving chief minister of Chhattisgarh. He held the post from the first Chhattisgarh Assembly election in 2003 until 2018 when the BJP faced its worst-ever defeat amid anti-incumbency sentiments and won just 15 seats.
The 71-year-old, who holds a Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine, and Surgery degree, began his political career in college and won his first election as a councillor in 1983. In 1999, Singh, who was by then a two-time MLA, contested and won the Lok Sabha elections.
In 2003, the Bharatiya Janata Party chose him to lead the party after which Singh resigned as the Union minister and contested the state polls. He is known as “Chawal wale Baba” for his rice procurement initiative and for putting the Public Distribution System (PDS) in place.
The Congress party, which had a tally of 71 MLAs, came down crashing to 35 seats, their lowest tally since the formation of Chhattisgarh.
