Baghel to swear in as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister today

Raipur: State Congress president Bhupesh Baghel was on Sunday picked the new Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, where the party crushed the BJP in Assembly elections to end its 15-year rule and will take oath on Monday evening.

Shortly after he was elected the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader by the MLAs at the party office Rajiv Bhavan, Baghel announced: "I am committed to waiving farmers' bank loans within 10 days."

He added that the Congress government will unravel the conspiracy that led to the killing by Maoists of top Congress leaders in the Jheeram Valley in Bastar in May 2013 including the then state Congress chief Nandkumar Patel, the veteran V.C. Shukla and Mahendra Karma.

Baghel is a powerful leader of the OBC community which makes up 52 per cent of the state's 2.55 crore population. The five-time MLA was elected from Patan in Durg district. He was Revenue Minister in Ajit Jogi's first government in Chhattisgarh that was voted out in 2003.