Starting a controversy, BJP General Secretary Daggubati Purandeswari on Thursday, 2 September, said that if her party workers "spit", the Congress-led Cabinet of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel will be "swept away" in the next state elections.
"We appeal to you to work with resolve, through your hard work BJP will come to power in 2023... When you turn back and spit, then, Bhupesh Baghel and his Cabinet will get swept away," Purandeswari was quoted as saying by news agency ANI, during an address to BJP workers in Bastar.
The BJP had enjoyed majority in Chhattisgarh for fifteen years until 2018, when it was ousted by the Congress.
Retaliating to Purandeswari's remarks against his Cabinet, Chief Minister Baghel stated, "I did not expect this... if anyone spits on the sky, then it falls on their own face," ANI reported.
The BJP general secretary's comment comes amid reports of friction within the Chhattisgarh Congress, with Baghel embroiled in a feud with the state's health minister TS Singh Deo over the chief minister's position.
Baghel and Deo had met with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi last week, fuelling speculations of the possibility of a rotational chief ministership.
However, Chhattisgarh Congress in-charge PL Punia, in a statement last week, had denied the claims of a change in leadership, and had stated that the reports of tension between Baghel and Deo were false.
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