The Jogi factor

The Congress is stuck with a slightly unusual dilemma in Chhattisgarh. Instead of fighting the BJP led government of Raman Singh, it is busy settling inner-party feuds.  Time was when former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi could confidently declare that his victory in the Mahasamund Lok Sabha seat in 2004 against VC Shukla, then BJP candidate, now back in the Congress, was a foregone conclusion –  and he proved to be on the ball.

No longer so. In October, at a state-level Congress manthan shivir in the Bilaspur district, the party's central observer for Chhattisgarh BK Hari Prasad, ostensibly sent in to oversee the its health in a state which has kept it out of power since 2003, decided to take on Jogi in no uncertain terms.

At the podium, sitting amongst Jogi's close aides, Prasad's swipe was meant to hit: "Followers and well wishers of Ajit Jogi who are interested to see their leader grow should ensure discipline. Jogi is not a leader who needs yes men to prove his identity." A furious Jogi retaliated immediately, calling upon Prasad to "stop talking about my supporters and begin your speech,'' adding for good measure that "party leaders needed more training camps than workers." At the end of the meeting, both leaders made light of the exchange saying they were old friends, but the snub had been duly registered.

While Hari Prasad is reported to have briefed the party high command on the state of affairs –  that being his prerogative as the designated observer –  old rival Vidya Charan Shukla took the anti-Jogi debate in Chhattisgarh to a new level. "Jogi's methods," he asserted "of using liquor and money to buy votes is against the Congress culture."

Cocking a snook, Jogi came out openly in support of MP Naveen Jindal, under a cloud over his alleged link to illegal coal miners in the state. Shukla had earlier attacked Jindal.

In Chhattisgarh, Ajit Jogi has long held sway over government, party and organisation. Such has been his impact that party presidents like Motilal Vora, Charandas Mahant and Dhanendra Sahu came and went, without being able to set up their own teams. The frustration of the Congress rank and file is so acute that they decided to blacken the face of central Congress minister V Narayanswamy, a former party observer, who was on a routine visit to the state.

Things have reached such a pass that the party has been unable to win either Lok Sabha, Assembly, urban bodies or panchayat elections, all polls where Rahul Gandhi had campaigned extensively. Rahul's own spirited talent hunt came a cropper because potentially talented Congress leaders picked by his team, sources say, were stymied by veterans, who paid lip service publicly but worked hard behind the scenes to sabotage their prospects.

Veteran Motilal Vora, once regarded as a force to reckon with in undivided Madhya Pradesh, has been unable to get his son Arun Vora elected from the Durg assembly seat for a record third time. 

Given the circumstances, Ajit Jogi is the lone influential Congress leader in the state with a significant mass base. His only two frailties are a suspect health condition since his accident in 2004 and a driving desire to dominate the party at the expense of any other leader.

Recently, nearly all Chhattisgarh Congress leaders met party president Sonia Gandhi to present a litany of grievances against Jogi. According to one leader who attended, it was pretty clear from the party high command that such protests would cut no ice. But Jogi, long off the party's central radars, is miffed as well. Well placed sources say the fed up with constant sniping from colleagues and ignored by the powers that be in Delhi, the former bureaucrat turned politician is toying with the idea of charting his own course of action. Among them: a tie up with the BSP which has shown adequate promise in the state. The Congress has not forgotten that in the 2003 assembly elections, VC Shukla, then briefly with the NCP, had spoilt the prospects of a dozen party candidates by putting up NCP nominees to cut votes. Jogi's future in the party has also been under cloud since Rahul Gandhi, during a recent visit to the state, decided to ignore him completely, much to the delight of his detractors.

Alarmed with an inner party assessment three months ago that the Congress will not be able to form a government in Chhattisgarh should this trend continue, Rahul Gandhi has given the brief of MP and Chhattisgarh to former MP CM Digvijay Singh, supposed to be well versed with both states.

Some recent changes in the state Congress structure have Digvijaya's unmistakable stamp: the appointment of Ravinder Chaubey as Leader of Opposition in the Chhattisgarh Assembly, Nandkumar Patel is the new state president and Charandas Mahant has joined the Union Cabinet as minister of state.

All three are long-standing Digvijaya acolytes and party insiders claim that Jogi was studiously ignored when the changes were being made. A resurgent Digvijaya and his team have launched a frontal assault on the Raman Singh government making it appear as if it is only a question of time before the BJP is ousted.

But the Congress can sideline him at its own peril. An injured Jogi is capable of quite a bit of damage. He is reportedly not too keen on a gubernatorial assignment or even movement to Delhi as party spokesman. Even if he agrees, it is going to come at a stiff price. Wife Renu Jogi is already a legislator in from Kota in Bilaspur district but Jogi has publicly expressed his desire that son Amit get to contest the Marwahi assembly seat in addition to 35 odd assembly tickets for distribution when the state next goes to the polls. Unfortunately for him, those are terms of endearment that inner Congress dynamics may simply not permit.

anil.dwivedi@thesundayindian.com