Former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi once again challenged the party organisation by seeking favour of people for Gitanjali Patel as his favourite for the Assembly seat of Chandrapur, which is considered as stronghold of his bête noire Nobel Verma who, despite his bitter opposition, returned to Congress fold only a few month back.
After addressing public meet at Dabhra, Jogi reached Patan to attend another public meet organised to mark the death anniversary of ‘Mini Mata’, a reverent figure from scheduled castes community. Despite murmurs in party circles regarding his defiance, no slackening was seen in Jogi’s stance.
After projecting Chunnilal Sahu and Radhakrishna Tandon as the next candidate for Akaltara and Abhanpur Assembly constituencies respectively, he had reached Dabhra Monday to attend the function organised on the death anniversary of Mini Mata. There, terming Gitanjali Patel as his daughter he demanded public mandate for her in the ensuing Assembly election.
Shedding light on the life and works of Mini Mata, Jogi said that late Mini Mata remained Parliamentarian from 1952 to 1972. But she had the guts to get her work done even by pressurising Mrs Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister. launching a broadside against the BJP Government in the State Jogi accused it of indulging in loot of the State resources as merely three months time remained to its ouster.
Alleging that some people called him handicapped but he is standing on the 4 crore legs of 2 crore people residing in Chhattisgarh. Despite bad weather he reached Dabhra even when some other leader could readily have avoided coming here in this situation. In the meeting, Congress MlAs Sakrajit Nayak and Ms Padma Manhar werealso present.
Notably, the former Chief Minister is showing his strength to the party organisation through public meetings being organised throughout state on the death anniversary of Mini Mata even as State organisation leaders lead by Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president Charandas Mahant are also attending public meetings on the same issue. Open defiance of Ajit Jogi, who holds sway over Scheduled Castes population, can harm the poll prospects of Congress in the State.