RAIPUR: Senior
Congress
leader and former Union Minister
Charan Das Mahant
has been appointed as the Leader of the Opposition ahead of the winter session of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly. All India Congress Committee General Secretary K.C. Venugopal issued a letter on Saturday stating that the Congress president has approved the proposal for Charan Das Mahant's immediate appointment as the
CLP
Leader of the state.
The 35-member Congress Legislature Party (CLP), which convened two days ago, adopted a resolution authorizing Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to appoint its leader. Tribal leader Deepak Baij, a sitting MP from Bastar, assumed the party chief's role three months before the assembly elections. Despite attempts within the opposition party to attribute blame to him following the Congress defeat in the polls, he maintained that the election was contested under joint leadership.
In addition, the Congress president has sanctioned the continuation of Deepak Baij as the president of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee.
Mahant was appointed as the Speaker of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly after the Congress swept the assembly elections in 2018. Previously served as a Member of Parliament representing the Korba constituency and held the position of Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing.
During the 15th Lok Sabha term, Mahant was the sole Congress Member of Parliament from Chhattisgarh. He secured the Lok Sabha seat in 1998, re-elected in 1999 and 2009, and was also designated as the Working President of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee.
Baij presently holds the position of President of the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee. He won a seat in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, from Bastar, Chhattisgarh, in 2019. However, Baij faced defeat in the 2023 assembly elections from the Chitrakot seat.
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