Chhattisgarh govt hurriedly made appointments of Cong MLAs: Agrawal

Senior BJP MLA in Chhattisgarh, Brijmohan Agrawal, on Wednesday took a dig at the ruling Congress in the state saying that it has "hurriedly' appointed its party legislators as parliamentary secretaries out of fear amid the political crisis in Rajasthan. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday appointed 15 Congress MLAs as parliamentary secretaries and assigned them to assist 12 cabinet ministers in the state.

"There is a huge discontent among Congress legislators in the state. Therefore, the ruling party decided in a hurry to appoint parliamentary secretaries while it has also intensified the process to appoint chairpersons of corporations, commissions and boards in the state. All these developments are the impact of what happened in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan," Agrawal said.

"Congress fears that what happened in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan may get replicated in Chhattisgarh," the former minister said.

Replying to his statement, senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh, who reached Raipur this evening, asked whether the BJP and Brijmohan Agrawal were conducting the auction of MLAs. When asked about political turmoil in Rajasthan, Singh said that he was not (the party's) in-charge for Rajasthan and hasn't been to Jaipur so he is unaware about it.

In the 90-member state assembly, the Congress has 69 MLAs, while the BJP has 14. Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have 4 and 2 members, respectively, in the assembly. Marwahi assembly seat is lying vacant after the death of former Chief Minister and JCC (J) MLA Ajit Jogi in May.