Stung by the fact that both his and his wife Richa Jogi’s nominations were rejected for the Marwahi bypoll, the president of the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) on Saturday hit out at Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel saying that Baghel was "fearful of the name of Jogi".
The Marwahi bypoll in Chhattisgarh, necessitated by the death of party president and ex-CM Ajit Jogi on May 29 this year, has turned interesting after the nomination papers of Amit Jogi (son of Ajit Jogi), his wife Richa and two more candidates nominated by the party were rejected. The bypoll is scheduled on November 3.
This is for the first time since Ajit Jogi won the Marwahi seat in 2001 that no Jogi family member is in fray for the seat.
Amit Jogi’s outburst over the social media has come days after the nomination of his and his wife’s nomination papers on caste grounds on October 17. Jogi couple’s nomination papers got rejected after Amit Jogi’s caste certificate was cancelled by a high power scrutiny committee and Richa Jogi’s caste certificate was also held in abeyance.
The young leader has alleged in a social media post that the electoral officer had rejected his, his wife’s and two other party candidates’ nomination papers out of fear of Bhupesh (Baghel).
“There has been no other instance of such blatant and shameful loyalty to master and sycophancy in Indian electoral history as shown by the Marwahi electoral officer. This shows the fear and deranged mentality of Bhupesh [Baghel] towards the Jogi family that more than Jogi, he is fearful of the name of Jogi,” Amit Jogi’s post said. He also added reverse counting has started for the Congress in Chhattisgarh.
With JCCJ out of fray, the bypolls are now a direct contest between Dr Krishna Kumar Dhruv of Congress and Dr Gambhir Singh, both trained medicos.
Late Ajit Jogi represented the Marwahi seat four times, while Amit Jogi was MLA here from 2013-18. But for the 2018 election, which Ajit Jogi fought under the banner of JCCJ that he formed in 2016 after getting expelled from Congress, the Jogi father-son duo won the other elections on Congress tickets.
In 2018 Assembly polls, Ajit Jogi defeated Archana Porte of BJP by 46,462 votes after polling more than 70,000 votes. The Congress was relegated to third place.
Minister Singh Deo stirs hornet’s nest
Meanwhile, senior Chhattisgarh minister T.S. Singh Deo stirred hornet’s nest on Saturday by saying that it will be the division of the votes of JCCJ in the constituency that will determine the result. The health minister said that JCCJ had garnered over 70,000 votes in the 2018 polls and if they were divided half-way between Congress and BJP, the BJP might have a chance to win (as it had got more votes than Congress in 2018). However, if Congress got 40,000 of JCCJ votes, the party would win.
Both the Congress and BJP have made the fight into a prestige issue and senior state leaders are regularly campaigning in the constituency. Ruling Congress wants to bring the seat back in its fold, while BJP will also try to wrest it. In such a situation, Singh Deo’s statement has created quite some flutter in the state.
The Congress has said that while the senior minister had tried to analyse the situation, the Congress will be winning the seat handsomely as several BJP and JCCJ leaders from Marwahi had joined Congress recently and the government was working for welfare of the people.
