Ajit Jogi will not contest in state polls, says his son Amit

RAIPUR: Former chief minister and head of the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh ( JCC) Ajit Jogi will not be a candidate in the upcoming state elections, his son and party leader Amit Jogi said on Friday, weeks after announcing that Jogi would contest against CM Raman Singh from the Rajanandgaon assembly seat.

“He ( Ajit Jogi) will concentrate on the whole state and will campaign for all the candidates instead of fighting elections himself. The aim is to strengthen the party campaign and form the government in Chhattisgarh,” said Amit Jogi, Janata Congress Chhattisgarh leader.

He added that the alliance -with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) -- has decided that Ajit Jogi will not contest.

The JCC is slated to contest in 53 seats while BSP will contest in 35 seats of Chhattisgarh’s 90 assembly seats. The CPI will contest on two seats -- Konta and Dantewada.

In the 2013 assembly elections, the BSP had got 4.27% votes whereas the CPI got 0.66%. Jogi was then part of the Congress and his son was elected as a legislator on a Congress ticket from Mahasamund.

Jogi was chief minister from 2000-2003.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with Raman Singh at the helm, has been in power in the state since last 15 years.

“Ajit Jogi’s party has no base in Chhattisgarh . He knows that he will lose elections and will not able to win his own seat hence he decided not to fight. He is man of gimmick,” said Sacchinand Upasane , senior leader and BJP spokesperson.

Meanwhile, political commentator, Ashok Tomar, claimed that that it was pre-decided that Ajit Jogi will not fight elections in Chhattisgarh.

“He knows that his party will not win more than a couple of seats in Chhattisgarh hence he is playing a safe game. Secondly, everyone knows in the state that his health is not good and deteriorating day by day,” said Ashok Tomar.