 "Everything you need to know about Deputy CM of Chhattisgarh T S Singh Deo")
Tribhuvaneshwar Saran Singh Deo, known as T S Singh Deo, is an Indian politician from Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh. He is the current Deputy Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh.
Titular Maharaja of Surguja, Singh was born on October 31, 1952. Often referred to as "T S Baba" in the local constituency, Singh was the last mentor to sit on the throne of Surguja.
Political profile
Currently, he is serving as a Cabinet Minister for Health in the Chhattisgarh government. He was the Leader of Opposition in the fourth Vidhan Sabha of Chhattisgarh.
Deo has been elected from the Ambikapur Assembly Constituency three times since 2008, winning by a margin of 39,624 against his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opponent Anurag Singh Deo in the 2018 elections.
Being from a royal family, he is considered to be the richest MLA in the state of Chhattisgarh.
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He has been a very active politician, and his efforts against the BJP government helped him bring the Congress to power with a massive majority in Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha election of 2018.
Deo in the Baghel Cabinet
After the 2018 Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly election, when the Congress gained victory, Deo and the current Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, were both considered candidates for the position of Chief Minister. Still, eventually Baghel was chosen over Deo because Baghel was a significant Other Backward Classes (OBC) face in the state.
Deo was appointed Cabinet minister in the Baghel ministry, holding five important portfolios — health and family welfare, medical education, 20-point programme implementation, commercial taxes, and panchayat and rural development.
Personal life
Deo completed his schooling at St Joseph's College in Nainital. He graduated from Hamidia College in Bhopal with a master's degree in history. He was interested in politics from college and joined the Congress party in 1977.
He contested his first election in 1980 from Ambikapur Lok Sabha constituency but lost to BJP's Dilip Singh Judeo. He contested again in 1984 and 1989 but again lost both times.
He then focused on state politics and contested his first assembly election in 1998 from Sitapur constituency but lost to BJP's Ram Pratap Singh. In 2003, he contested Ambikapur constituency again but lost to BJP's Anurag Singh Deo.
He finally won his first assembly election in 2008 from Ambikapur constituency by defeating BJP's Ram Pratap Singh. He retained his seat in 2013 and 2018 by defeating BJP's Anurag Singh Deo.
He is unmarried and has been involved in various social and cultural activities, such as organising festivals, sports events, and literary programmes across the state.
The 70-year-old politician is a passionate lover of adventurous sports. On his recent trip to Australia, he undertook an adrenaline-fueled skydiving adventure.
Political rivalry between Deo and Baghel
In July 2022, Deo relinquished two ministerial portfolios, citing the non-allocation of necessary funds and an overreaching committee of secretaries, disrupting his department's operations. These disagreements further intensified the Baghel-Deo rivalry.
The political journey of Deo and Baghel has been punctuated by public disagreements, with the most notable event being the 2022 coal mining project in the Hasdeo Aranya forests. Deo's stand against environmental exploitation conflicted with Baghel's initial support for the project.
However, the Chief Minister eventually conceded and put the project on hold.