Jogi loses his ‘fool’s paradise’

While Jogi was glued to the TV till 4pm, his son Amit Jogi was collecting feedback and hoping for a last-minute miracle.

Jogi accepted the peoples’ verdict much later and even this was not without ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. ‘‘There is need to analyse in-depth why only 20 seats in the Naxalite-infested belt slipped out of Congress hands. All others are with us,’’ he maintained.

‘‘The Congress base in the Dalits and Adivasis is still intact. They did not desert us,’’ he added.

Jogi found it difficult to believe that his pro-Adivasi agenda has crashed so abruptly. ‘‘It’s Adivasi power which I represent in Chhattisgarh,’’ he boasted notwithstanding the controversy surrounding his own tribal identity.

Some Congress leaders believe that had Sonia Gandhi removed him after the chargesheet, the BJP would have been deprived of its major poll plank — the Jogi factor. Further, a dozen Congress candidates including sitting ministers and MLAs did not put up Jogi cutouts and posters as his managers ensured hoardings had more of the CM than Sonia or anyone else.

So why did Jogi lose? After coming to Chhattisgarh to head the new Congress government, he began his politics on the wrong foot. Despite having no support base, Jogi centralised power and tried to rule through bureaucrats. The babus were loyal to him. Defections that followed after he became CM, a lathicharge on BJP MLAs and undermining the role of the Vidhan Sabha sent wrong signals to the masses. Another general perception that went against him was that his son Amit Jogi called the shots from the CM’s house.