Journalism of Courage
IN WHAT might lead to a mutually beneficial arrangement, Amit Ajit Jogi, the president of the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J), recently flew down to meet Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo K Chandrashekar Rao.
While Rao has been meeting leaders with some hold in states neighbouring Telangana, in his bid to go national, Amit Jogi told The Indian Express that he would welcome any help he gets ahead of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections later this year.
A former MLA, Amit has been struggling to sustain the JCC(J) since the demise of his father Ajit Jogi, Chhattisgarh’s first chief minister, who had launched the party after parting ways with the Congress.
While the JCC(J) aimed to become a regional party that could give a tough competition to the BJP and Congress, the two national parties which have retained power in Chhattisgarh alternatively, it has been disintegrating.
In the first Assembly elections it contested in 2018 as a separate party, it fought in 57 seats and won five, plus got a commendable 7.6 % of the total votes. However, since Ajit Jogi’s death in 2020, it has been reduced to 2 in the House.
One of its MLAs, Dharamjeet Singh (Lormi constituency) was expelled last year for trying to join the BJP. Another seat, Marwahi, which had been won by Ajit Jogi, went in for bypoll after his death, and was wrested by the Congress. Similar was the fate of Khairagarh, won by the JCC(J)’s Devwrat Singh in 2018, but the Congress in a bypoll following Singh’s death of a heart attack in 2021.
Of the JCC(J)’s remaining two MLAs, while one is Amit’s mother Renu Jogi, the other, Pramod Sharma from Baloda Bazar, is said to be in talks with the BJP.
Exuding confidence despite these setbacks, Amit told The Indian Express that the coming days would see the JCC(J) get together with “all like-minded parties, not only from the state but also from outside”. “Last month I covered 27 constituencies as part of our mass contact programme,” he said.
About the BRS, Amit said so far there was no talk of an alliance. “It was just a courtesy visit. Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao is an old friend of my father’s. It is too early to talk of any alliance with any party. He has formed a party on the national level now and we discussed it. I am happy that there is a non-BJP and non-Congress national alternative, and I wished him well from my side. It is healthy for the nation that there are more options, and hopefully there will be balance in Indian politics.”
Talking of the links between Chhattisgarh and Hyderabad, Amit said: “It is a fact that a lot of people from Chhattisgarh go to Hyderabad, and many from Hyderabad come here. So there is a lot of inter-state connectivity, and I am sure any support we get will be beneficial for us. But I have no idea if he (KCR) will be coming here.”
Amit added that other regional parties had been successful in keeping the BJP out of power. “My father and I always believed that only a coalition of regional parties could stop the BJP. Whether it is Mamata didi (Mamata Banerjee), Mr KCR, Mr (Arvind) Kejriwal or Mr (Naveen) Patnaik, they have been able to stop the BJP, and I hope that in Chhattisgarh too, we can achieve this.”
While there has been some speculation that the JCC(J) might merge with the Congress, Amit ruled this out categorically. “It is totally against the principles and constitution of our party.”
Leaders from other states who have dropped in to meet KCR recently include former Odisha CM Giridhar Gamang (he later announced he was joining the BRS), and former Maharashtra MP Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje, a descendant of Maratha hero Chhatrapati Shivaji, who nurtures political ambitions.
KCR is set to hold his second BRS rally, in Nanded, Maharashtra, in a few days from now, after the first one in Khammam drew leaders of an array of Opposition parties.
