RAIPUR: In 2003, after Chhattisgarh had just been carved out from Madhya Pradesh and was set to go for Assembly polls, BJP firebrand leader Dilip Singh Judeo hogged the limelight when he challenged the then Congress CM Ajit Jogi that he will shave off his moustache if his party got defeated.
The BJP went on to form the government. Twenty years later, the state is witnessing a similar open challenge linked to manly pride over moustaches. It is now the turn of tribal leader Amarjeet Singh Bhagat, the food and civil supplies minister in the Congress-led government, who insisted that his party will retain power in the upcoming Assembly polls while accepting a challenge given by former BJP MP Nand kumar Sai, also a tribal leader.
Former BJP Lok Sabha MP Ramvichar Netam publicly declared from a stage on Sai’s behalf that he will not get a haircut till the Congress party was trounced in Chhattisgarh. Sai went on to endorse the same. Bhagat retorted, “What is so great to take a chance on one’s hair? If he has to bet on anything, it should be to ensure the benefit of quota is extended to the people of the state.” He declared that if Congress failed to win the polls, he will lop off his moustache.
The state polls are due later this year. BJP leader Prabal Pratap Singh Judeo (son of late Dilip Singh Judeo) said Bhagat should be ready to shave his moustache off, even as the state BJP on its official Twitter handle posted a clean shaved image as ‘new look of Amarjeet Bhagat in December 2023’.