Civic poll defeat a mandate against Raman Singh, says Congress

January 05, 2015 08:36 pm | Updated 08:36 pm IST - RAIPUR:

A day after it gave a drubbing to the ruling BJP  in Chhattisgarh civic polls, the  Congress party  on Monday demanded Chief Minister Raman Singh’s resignation “because the CM had asked the voters to vote in his name”.

Addressing a press conference at state Congress headquarters here, state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel said, “CM Raman Singh campaigned extensively in civic polls. At many places, he told  voters that a vote for BJP candidate was a vote for him and asked them elect the BJP. Now that the BJP has suffered defeat in elections, we demand the CM should resign.”

A visibly aggressive state Congress chief also claimed that the people of the state rejected the call of Prime Minster Narendra Modi to make Chhattisgarh and the entire country “Congress free” and added the “resurgence” of the Congress had begun from Chhattisgarh.

Reacting to the Congress’s call for his resignation, Mr. Singh said that there was not much difference between the seats won by the Congress and his party.

“There is no scope for the Congress to even dream of coming to power in the state at least for next 10 years,” he told reporters here.

However, BJP MP from Raipur, Ramesh Bais conceded that the saffron party's vote bank in the state was not satisfied with the party.

“The tribal belt of Chhattisgarh which voted for BJP in previous elections, did not vote for the party during civic polls and their discontent is visible. We have to work to get this vote bank back to the party,” said Mr.Bais whose name was doing the rounds as a possible replacement for incumbent Raman Singh.

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