Cong got Sahu votes in 2018 Chhattisgarh polls by promising to make Tamradhwaj Sahu CM, says Union minister

Union Minister Rameswar Teli on Saturday said the Congress secured the votes of the Sahu community in the 2018 Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh by falsely promising to make Tamradhwaj Sahu as the state's chief minister.

Raipur: Union Minister Rameswar Teli on Saturday said the Congress secured the votes of the Sahu community in the 2018 Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh by falsely promising to make Tamradhwaj Sahu as the state’s chief minister.

Sahu is currently the home minister in the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government and he was a contender for the top post at the time along with TS Singh Deo (currently deputy CM) and Charandas Mahant (Assembly speaker).

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Addressing a rally in Kharsia in Raigarh, the Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas and labour said the Congress had failed to fulfil promises made to the electorate and asked people to vote it out of power in the Assembly polls set to be held at the end of the year.

Teli, Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha member from Dibrugarh in the north eastern state of Assam, said he belonged to the Sahu community and that his family has roots in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

“Recently, Chhattisgarh Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu was travelling from Assam along with his family on a flight. Our MP Bhubaneswar Kalita from Assam, who had joined BJP after quitting Congress, was also travelling (on the same flight). Kalita asked me if I recognise Tamradhwaj Sahu? I said yes. I said he was an MP and belonged to our community,” he told the gathering.

“Kalita ji, who was Congress in charge for Chhattisgarh during elections, said the party had campaigned that Tamradhwaj Sahu will be made CM but after winning polls, Bhupesh Bagel was appointed to the post. Congress secured votes of our community by making such false promises,” Teli claimed.

Teli said Kalita told this in front of Tamrdhwaj Sahu that Congress ditched Sahus in the state, adding that the Congress was a party that makes promises but fails to fulfil them.

Teli, who addressed the gathering briefly in Chhattisgarhi language, asked people to vote for the BJP’s Mahesh Sahu from Kharsia Assembly seat in the upcoming polls.

“It is said that around 200 years ago, our family shifted to Assam from this region in search of livelihood. We have now become Assamese. Assam is mini india.

I can speak 8-9 languages, including Chhattisgarhi,” the Union minister said.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, in which the Congress ended the BJP’s 15-year old rule, the Sahus were seen to have backed the grand old party.

Sahus, also known as ‘Teli’, account for about 14 per cent of the state’s population. They are largely settled in plains and are mainly farmers, while some are traders.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, the BJP had fielded 14 candidates hailing from the Sahu community, of which 13 lost.

Incidentally, the BJP last year appointed MP Arun Sao, a Sahu, as its state unit chief.

Of the 21 candidates the opposition BJP announced last month for the upcoming polls, tickets to four of the 10 unreserved seats have been given to members of the Sahu community.