The wheelchair-bound veteran politician Ajit Jogi is the most busiest man than any of his competitors while campaigning in poll-bound Chhattisgarh to create a hung Assembly to become the HD Kumaraswamy of the mineral-rich State.
Swelling crowd at State’s first Chief Minister’s public meetings in his native sprawling Bilaspur region which has 24 out of State’s total 90 seats, has become a big headache for BJP’s war room strategists.
The State goes to polls for 18 seats in the first phase on November 12 while the remaining 72 seats on the second and final phase on November 20.
“The main rival of the BJP is Congress but in over two dozen seats Jogi-led alliance is a formidable force, you can never underestimate his (Jogi) political sharpness’’ said Raman Singh, the BJP’s longest serving Chief Minister.
The bureaucrat-turned 72-year old politician Jogi has emerged a potential challenger to State’s two major parties, the grand old Congress and the BJP which is ruling the State since 2003 when Jogi-led Congress regime was voted out of power.
Jogi’s new political outfit Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) has forged an alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the new combine is contesting on all 90 seats but its core influence lies in State’s most populated Bilaspur region.
Political analysts say that Jogi draws massive crowd at his all rallies and the State could see hung assembly if crowd back up him with votes.
A top Jogi’s aide claimed, “if we get 8-10 seats which are very much on the cards, then Ajit Jogi will be the king not the king-maker,’’. He claimed that though Jogi has better personal relationship with Raman Singh and pathological hatred from Congress but in case of hung assembly he would prefer to ally with Congress if the national party agrees to install Jogi as the Chief Minister, similar to the case of Karnataka.
Amit Jogi, lone son of Ajit Jogi and de facto head of the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J), said, “the election result will produce a shocker for the BJP and the Congress, people are with Ajit Jogi because we are fighting for the larger welfare of Chhattisgarhia (local people of Chhattisgarh). He stated that his party would reserve roughly 90-100 per cent jobs only for the youths of Chhattisgarh in Government if voted to power.
A key face in BJP’s election war room in Chhatisgarh, remarked, “Jogi-led alliance has killing instinct in Scheduled Caste dominated seats, it will be interesting to watch out how the front convert its popularity in selected areas into actual results,’’.
Analysts predict that in best case scenario, Jogi-led alliance could win 6-9 seats with roughly seven to nine percent votes polled which would be deadly for the BJP and the Congress as the vote difference between the two national parties was just 0.72 per cent in 2013 election.
The overall votes difference between the two national parties were just 92,000 in entire 90 seats in 2013. The BJP had bagged 49 seats, the Congress 39 seats, the BSP one seat with overall four per cent votes polled and while Independent one seat.
There are total 10 seats reserved for the SC category candidates in the State and the BJP had won nine SC seats in last election in 2013. Data shows that in 53 seats the SC population exceeds more than 10 per cent while in remaining 37 seats they are in single digit population.