Among eight Congress leaders named in the recent FIRs filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) over the alleged coal levy and liquor scam cases in Chhattisgarh, are two former ministers of the Bhupesh Baghel government. Of them, Amarjeet Bhagat, who held the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection portfolio, has been named for the first time in the cases. In the case of the other, U D Minj, Baghel has said that he figures “as he had contested against the current Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai” in the 2023 Assembly polls.

Apart from Bhagat and Minj, former excise minister Kawasi Lakhma was booked in the liquor scam case, while Congress MLAs Devendra Singh Yadav, Chandradev Prasad Rai, Brihaspat Singh, Gulab Kamro and Shishupal Sori were named in the coal levy case FIR.

Baghel has said that the move showed “the narrow and vindictive mindset” of Sai, and said the FIRs had been registered with “an eye on the Lok Sabha elections”. “For three years, the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax have been investigating, and now they have filed FIRs. When they were investigating it, they did not name Lakhma, Bhagat or MLAs Minj and Kamro. Are you at liberty to defame anyone at will? Today, suddenly, they name Congress leaders. This is a clear attempt to defame Congress leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.”

As per the FIRs, Bhagat received Rs 50 lakh from Suryakant Tiwari, the alleged kingpin of the scams, as kickbacks during his tenure as Minister for Economics and Statistics (July 2020 to December 2022).

The 55-year-old is a senior tribal leader from the Surguja tribal belt, from where the Congress lost all the 14 seats in the November 2023 Assembly elections. Bhagat, a four-time MLA, lost the Sitapur seat to retired CRPF jawan Ramkumar Toppo, who had joined the BJP months before the elections.

Among the perceived reasons for Bhagat’s defeat was the infighting within the local unit of the party.

Once an aide of first Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi, Bhagat is believed to have got his first MLA ticket in 2003 at the insistence of Jogi, who was then in the Congress. When Jogi left the party in 2016, Bhagat stayed back and is learnt to have forged a bond with Baghel and his associates.

As per the affidavit filed by Baghel in the 2023 elections, he has no criminal record. He and his wife own movable and immovable properties worth over Rs 7 crore.

As per the FIR in the coal levy case, Minj, a former MLA from the Kunkuri tribal seat in Jashpur, received Rs 50,000 from Tiwari. Minj contested his first election in 2008, and lost. He contested again in 2018, and won from Jashpur seat. In 2013, he again threw his hat in the ring, but lost his seat to Sai, later picked by the BJP as its Chhattisgarh CM.

A mechanical engineer by qualification, the 58-year-old Minj started out as a Janpat panchayat member. He served as the state secretary of the Youth Congress and convener of the Congress’s National Students’ Union of India, in Madhya Pradesh. He is said to be close to Baghel.

As per his Vidhan Sabha affidavit after becoming MLA, he has worked as a consultant engineer and has an agriculture business.

A tribal Christian, Minj had faced criticism from right-wing groups in 2022 for allegedly trying to acquire land in Jashpur for the construction of a cemetery for Christians.