PERSONALITY His “subjects” revere him as their king. But for the people of Chhattisgarh, he is also the leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly. He is Congress’ Tribhuvaneshwar Saran Singh Deo (61), the 118th Maharaja of the Raksel dynasty of Surguja, who is worth by his own admission a whopping `561.50 crore, making him one of the richest politicians in the country.
Apart from his immense wealth and royal lineage (he was anointed “king” in 2001), what sets Singh Deo apart from every other politician in the state is his soft and calm demeanour, courtesy and civility. According to senior Congress leaders, despite his quiet nature, Singh Deo will emerge a strong and effective voice of the Opposition in the Assembly.
“He has a very clean and non-controversial image and despite being from a royal background he is easily accessible and even an ordinary party worker can go and meet him. Singh Deo will make sure that the Congress attacks the BJP relentlessly in the Assembly,” said Bhujit Doshi, state Congress spokesperson.
This will be Singh Deo’s second stint in the Assembly. He first won from Ambikapur in Surguja in 2008 by a margin of 980 votes. This time his victory margin was close to 19,000 votes.
Congress state leaders claimed that unlike some party men, who because of their professional and personal proximity to the Chief Minister, were more like members of the Raman Singh cabinet rather than the Opposition, Singh Deo was likely to give a tough time to the BJP. “The BJP faced little opposition in the last 10 years from the Congress as our leaders have been too affable with Raman Singh. However, Singh Deo will change that,” added a party official.
Singh Deo’s father, M S Singh Deo, was chief secretary of undivided Madhya Pradesh and was fondly addressed by Congress stalwart Arjun Singh as Maharajaji. His mother, Devendra Kumari, had contested on a Congress ticket in the late 1980s.
Singh Deo, who was facing competition from senior leader and six times MLA Satyaranayan Sharma and Renu Jogi, wife of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, managed to secure the position of leader of Opposition because of his apparent proximity to Congress General Secretary and former Madhya Pradesh chief Minister Digvijaya Singh.
“Diggi Raja and Singh Deo both hail from a royal lineage and have known each other for many decades now. Apart from Singh Deo’s non-controversial image, it was his closeness to Singh that helped him upstage Sharma, who was also a very strong contender”, a former Congress minister from undivided Madhya Pradesh said.
True to expectations, soon after his elevation, Singh Deo targeted the BJP for the May 25
Darbha Maoist attack and demanded a white paper on actions being taken by the state government. He also demanded that the probe reports of both National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the state-constituted judicial commission into the incident should be made public.
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