Ajit Jogi Will Not Contest Chhattisgarh Elections, His Son Says Ahead of Assembly Polls

Former chief minister of state and leader of Chhattisgarh Janata Congress (CJC) Ajit Jogi will not be contesting in the assembly elections next month, according to son Amit Jogi, as his father would instead be engaged in campaigning for the alliance partners.

Speaking to ANI, Amit Jogi said that the alliance between Janta Congress Chhattisgarh, BSP & CPI would make his father, the star campaigner, visit 90 constituencies, making it difficult to concentrate on his own.

Earlier, Mayawati had projected Ajit Jogi as the chief ministerial candidate while announcing the pre-poll alliance. CJC had announced a pre-poll alliance with the Communist Party of India (CPI) within days of joining hands with BSP.

As per the seat-sharing formula for Chhattisgarh disclosed by Mayawati, BSP will contest for 35 seats while Jogi’s CJC will contest the remaining 55 seats in the 90-member assembly.

In the meantime, Congress too announced its 12 candidates for the Bastar region on Thursday. The party is already struggling after Ram Dayal Uike, the party MLA from Pali Tanakhar and a tribal leader who was appointed the party’s state working president in January this year switched to BJP.

The BJP which has been in power in the state for past three terms is targetting Congress in its campaigns. Addressing BJP’s booth-level workers at Ambikapur, Amit Shah asked them to tell people that the state will again be at the mercy of Maoists if the Congress emerges victorious in next month’s Assembly polls.

BJP, which continues to be in power for three consecutive terms, has been targeting the Congress in its election campaigns. While addressing BJP’s booth-level workers in Ambikapur, party president Amit Shah asked them to tell the people of Chhattisgarh that the state would be at the mercy of Maoists if Congress secured a victory in next month’s assembly polls.

The assembly election in Chhattisgarh will be contested in two phases. Voting in the first phase will be held on November 12 and the second on November 20. The results will be declared on December 11.