The former Chief Minister and Chhattisgarh Janata Congress (CJC) supremo Ajit Jogi is all set to withdraw his party from the upcoming elections.
Ajit Jogi was a former Congress leader. He floated his own party (Chhattisgarh Janata Party) in 2015.
The state was created in the year 2000, and since then Ajit Jogi has always been contesting the elections.
The decision of withdrawing his party from the upcoming General Elections will make it the first ever election in the state since its emergence, without the CJC supremo as a electoral contender.
Before the 2018 Assembly Elections, Ajit Jogi presented himself as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP by entering into an alliance with Mayawati’s BSP.
Ajit Jogi said that ” I thought I will be the king-maker as I estimated a hung assembly and our alliance (BSP-CJC) would win about 15 assembly seats”.
However, that did not happen as the BSP-CJC alliance had to settle for only 7 seats and Congress got a two-third majority by winning 68 of the 90 Assembly seats in Chattisgarh.
Ajit Jogi’s party got 5 seats in the Assembly Elections. Of the five seats CJC got, the Marwai constituency was won by Ajit Jogi and Kota seat by his wife Renu Jogi.
The ruling BJP was confined to 15 seats.
Many Political experts are of the opinion that Jogi helped the Congress as the party became more acceptable to the influential OBCs, who constitute about 54% of Odisha’s population, and had backed the BJP earlier.
Ajit Jogi said that his alliance got about 15% of the vote share, which according to him is a ‘solid base’ for future Assembly Elections.
Also, the BSP, has announced 6 candidates for the Lok Sabha Election without consulting him. BSP is Jogi’s alliance partner for the Assembly Polls.
However, Jogi has not decided whether he will campaign for the BSP or not.
Chhattisgarh, has 11 Lok Sabha seats.