In his interview to ET Congress Party’s newly appointed in charge of Chhattisgarh PL Punia, said that Ajit Jogi was damaging the party from inside and his departure is a blessing for the party.
Chhattisgarh will soon be facing the assembly elections in 2018 and the political parties have geared up for the polls well in advance. When asked about the challenges Congress is likely to face during the election in BJP ruled Chhattisgarh Punia said that Congress is very strong in the state. He pointed out that in past two elections Congress lost to BJP with less than 1% margin of votes. Further giving the details of the campaign he said that five booths are clubbed together to make a sector and each sector in charge is being trained on booth management.
Talking about the chief ministerial candidate he said that the party is not afraid of projecting any face, but it is too early to take a call on this for now.
Discussing about the new party formed by Ajit Jogi, Punia said that Jogi did more harm than good to the Congress. When he was with Congress he used to deliberately campaign for BJP and make Congress candidate loose. He also added that even though Jogi had a strong following among the scheduled tribes and reserved constituencies the party would not make any effort to get him back. If anyone wanted to come and join the party back, the high command’s decision will be final on that call.
During the interview, Punia also said that Congress was a democratic party and everybody had the right to express in the party. He further added that, even if the party faces a few differences within, eventually it stands united and fight as one.
Punia also denied the help of any outsider political strategists like Prashant Kishor for running their election campaign in poll-bound Chhattisgarh.