In a major and possibly decisive turnaround four days ahead of voting for Marwahi bypolls in Chhattisgarh, the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) has extended support to the BJP candidate Dr Gambhir Singh.
The announcement of support to the BJP came after leader of JCCJ, Dharamjit Singh, met ex-chief minister Raman Singh late on Friday night. The Congress has said that the Jogi Congress—as the JCCJ is popularly known—has always been the 'B team' of BJP and alleged that a deal of Rs 10 crore has been struck between the two parties.
“Both always denied the pact between them before the 2018 polls, but now they have been unmasked. They (JCCJ and BJP) should tell the people how much the deal was struck for,” Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said on Saturday.
Congress spokesman R.P. Singh was more straightforward and claimed that there had been talks of the impending deal in the bylanes of Marwahi for a few days and on Friday night it came into open. He alleged that a Rs 10 crore deal had been struck between the two parties.
JCCJ president Amit Jogi, whose as well as his wife Richa Jogi's nomination papers were rejected in Marwahi, has retorted saying that the decision of the party workers to support BJP was due to constant insult of his father (late Ajit Jogi) and the party. “The BJP is the richest party in the world. If it indeed gave Rs 10 crores then I would not have thought of legal action on this allegation. There is no A or B team, we are the C team. C stands for Chhattisgarh and Chhattisgarhia. Very soon the courts will decide what is right and people of Marwahi will get their true representative.”
Ex-chief minister Raman Singh has meanwhile thanked Renu Jogi (Amit Jogi's mother) and Dharamjit Singh for the support to BJP candidate. Addressing mediapersons on Saturday, Raman Singh said that people of Marwahi have already decided to defeat the Congress and after the support of JCCJ to BJP, the Congress candidate (Dr Krishna Kumar Dhruv) will forfeit his security deposit. As for the allegation of a deal, the ex-CM said that the Congress sees deals in everything as it is itself dealing in liquor, sand and what not. He also alleged that the Congress was trying to lure the voters by distributing liquor, sarees, blankets and utensils, of which a complaint has been made to the Election Commission.
Decisive move?
The decision of Jogi Congress to support BJP candidates may have a decisive impact on the result of the bypolls as the seat was originally held by JCCJ founder Ajit Jogi, who passed away in May this year. Jogi, who had polled over 70,000 votes in the 2018 assembly polls, had defeated the BJP candidate Archana Porte by over 46,000 votes. Congress was relegated to third place.
Now, with BJP and Jogi Congress joining hands, there are strong chances of the BJP candidate winning comfortably. However, the senior Congress leaders including Baghel himself have been engaged in hectic campaigning in the constituency to win back the seat that was held by Congress though represented by the Jogi family before the latter split with Congress in 2016.