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Journalism of Courage
Amit Jogi, son of late Ajit Jogi, Chhattisgarh’s first chief minister, will be pitted against Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel after he filed his nomination Monday from the Patan Assembly constituency in Durg district, from where Bagehl is a five-time MLA.
Earlier in the day, Baghel had filed his nomination from the seat.
In 2016, Ajit Jogi had left the Congress to form a regional party named Janta Congress Chhattisgarh-Jogi (JCC-J) which won five seats in its maiden Assembly elections in 2018 and whittled down Congress votes in other seats, resulting in its defeat to BJP.
After filing the nomination, Amit, who is presently president of JCC-J party and a former Congress MLA, said, “This election, the fight is not against ‘Bhupesh’ but ‘corruption’. This is an election of a powerful ‘family’ versus the ‘rights’ of the poor, SC/STs and MBCs of Patan. I am just the face, the candidates are Patan residents. I had the option of choosing a ‘safe’ seat in three Assemblies. I could have contested from two seats also, but I have decided to contest from Patan only on people’s request.”
Bhupesh won in 2018 from the Patan seat with the JCC-J candidate coming third bagging 13,201 votes against Baghel’s 84,352, defeating BJP candidate Motilal Sahu by a margin of 27,477. This time, BJP has picked Bhupesh’s nephew, Vijay Baghel who is a Lok Sabha MP from Durg district. Vijay, a former Congress leader, has also been entrusted with drafting the BJP manifesto. For the fourth time, Baghel will be facing his relative Vijay. Bhupesh lost in 2008 to Vijay and won against him in 2003 and 2013.
