Ajit Jogi, first CM of Chhattisgarh, dead

Ajit Jogi, first CM of Chhattisgarh, dead

He was hospitalised after a heart attack

30/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

Ajit Jogi

Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, 74, died on Friday after being hospitalised in Raipur following a heart attack. His death was announced on Twitter by his son Amit Jogi.

The former bureaucrat-turned-politician, who was the incumbent MLA from the Marwahi seat, was the first chief minister of Chhattisgarh after it was carved out of Madhya Pradesh as a separate State in November 2000.

Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offering his condolences to the family, tweeted,“Shri Ajit Jogi Ji was passionate about public service. This passion made him work hard as a bureaucrat and as a political leader.”

“Jogi ji’s death is an irreparable loss to the State. He laid a roadmap for the development of the State and delivered an important role as a skilled politician and administrator in its progress,” said Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who declared a three-day State mourning.

Mr. Jogi lost power in the 2003 Assembly elections but continued to be one of the tallest leaders of the Congress party until he and his son got embroiled in a controversy over a leaked audio tape towards the end of 2015, amid allegations that they “had forced” Manturam Pawar to withdraw his nomination as the Congress party’s official candidate in a bye-election.

After the controversy, the Jogis formally quit the Congress in 2016 and floated a regional outfit, the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh.

Throughout his career, Mr. Jogi also faced repeated scrutiny over his claim of being an Adivasi. Several petitions and cases were filed against him and all of them were legally challenged by him.

A seasoned politician

In November 2000, when the new State of Chhattisgarh was created, Mr. Jogi was chosen by Sonia Gandhi to head the State, pipping veterans like Moti Lal Vohra and the late Vidya Charan Shukla.

After losing power to the BJP in the State in 2003, he returned to the 14th Lok Sabha as a member of Parliament from the Mahasamund seat. But a car crash during the 2004 election campaign left him and wheelchair-bound.

In 2008, he successfully contested the Assembly elections from the Marwahi Assembly seat, a reserved constituency. But after the Congress could not to wrest back the State from the BJP, he once again became a Lok Sabha member in 2009, but failed to win his seat in 2014.

Through his life, Mr. Jogi always fought the odds to make a comeback but his dream of returning as the Chief Minister remained unfulfilled as he was out of the Congress long before his former party became the ruling party in Chhattisgarh.