Bhopal: Former Chhattisgarh chief minister, Ajit Jogi, on Friday received a jolt with 40 workers of his newly-floated regional party switching over to Congress. Significantly, a majority of these 40 workers of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh, that was floated by Jogi after he broke away from Congress two years ago, hailed from Pendra area of Bilashpur district in Chhattisgarh, considered Jogi’s stronghold.
The JCC activists resigned from the party and joined Congress in presence of Congress Legislature Party leader of Chhattisgarh, T.S. Singh, considered Jogi’s voracious opponent. “Forty workers of JCC joined the Congress on Friday. This clearly indicates erosion of base of Jogi in Pendra area,” a senior Congress leader of Chhattisgarh told this newspaper.
Incidentally, Jogi’s wife Renu Jogi, a sitting Congress MLA, is currently representing Kota (ST) Assembly constituency and the couple’s son, Amit Jogi, also a sitting MLA, has been elected from the neighbouring Marwahi (ST) Assembly seat in the last polls. Amit who was elected as a Congress candidate in 2013 Assembly elections was expelled from the party a couple of years ago in the wake of allegations of his involvement in the reported fixing of an Assembly by-election.
