“Subsequently, the no confidence motion passed by people of the State will be handed over to President of India on November 1, 2016- the state’s Foundation Day”, it stated.
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“Otherwise, Raman Singh will win the state for the fourth time as well as there is no hope from Congress, which is playing as B Team of Raman Singh”, Jogi said.
Concerned that even a veiled association with Ajit Jogi could prove to be costly for the party in the long term, BJP’s Chhattisgarh unit successfully resisted the central leadership’s push to prop up an independent candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls to scuttle the chances of the Congress candidate.
Jogi was accompanied by his wife Renu, who is also legislator from Kota and deputy leader of Congress legislative party, his son and Marwahi legislator Amit Jogi, and Congress legislators Siyaram Kaushik (Bilha) and Rajendra Kumar Rai (Gunderdehi) who ignored the party instructions not to attend the event. However, the Congress downplayed the rebellion Jogi, saying he has support of only one MLA. We will not accept decisions taken by people sitting in Delhi.
There were 10 former MLAs and a sprinkling of ex-ministers at an impressive gathering in the Marwahi (ST) assembly segment, represented by Jogi’s son Amit.
The former Chief Minister claimed that the State-level Congress leaders were actually supporting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime in Chhattisgarh and hence he was forced to take a stand.
He challenged the party’s state unit chief Baghel to win his Patan Assembly seat in the next Assembly elections.
Sources said not many MLAs will follow Jogi out of Congress. “They want weak people and sycophants in the party”, Jogi told Firstpost.
Incidentally, Jogi had accused the state Congress of working as the “B Team” of BJP. “He was in the party for 30-35 years and was made a parliamentarian, a chief minister and a union minister”, party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.
According to political analysts, Jogi, the bureaucrat-turned-politician, who has a considerable hold over the backward classes (BCs) and other backward classes (OBCs), is likely to make inroads in the Congress votebank, if he contests the next Chhattisgarh Assembly election under the banner of his new party. If he had any grievances, these could have been heard.
Mr Hariprasad said that the party elevated Mr Jogi from “DM to CM”, and that he would not be able to harm it.
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BJP’s Raman Singh could remain chief minister because of the politics played by Jogi within Congress, his detractors in the AICC said.
