RAIPUR: Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi on Sunday revealed that he would contest the Assembly elections in the state due later this year against Chief Minister Raman Singh, who is likely to contest again from the Rajnandgaon seat.
The 71-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician’s declaration sparked off political excitement as Jogi dubbed his plan to directly take on Singh as “the contest between the aspirations and disenchantment” of the masses.
An unfazed Singh said that in a democracy everyone had a right to stand for election from any place, and Jogi too could vie for the seat of his choice. “So, what’s the issue if he wishes to contest against me. He is welcome,” the chief minister said. In a statement released to the media, Jogi alleged that Raman Singh, during his 14 years in power, had attempted to eliminate him politically and socially, but could not succeed.
Taking a dig at Jogi’s assertion, the main Opposition Congress party said that nobody now took declarations by the former chief minister seriously.
“Jogi keeps announcing contesting elections from different constituencies at various occasions. So it’s nothing new when he again changed his decision, to contest from Rajnandgaon, which happens to be the traditional Congress party seat. During the last few months he has also announced contesting from the seats of Sitapur and Kasdol,” said Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, the chairman of the Congress media department. Jogi quit the Congress in June 2016 and floated his regional outfit, Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J).