Having faced a comprehensive rout in the recently concluded assembly polls, the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) – founded by former chief minister late Ajit Jogi, might be looking at a merger with the ruling BJP in the state.
Amit Jogi, the president of the JCCJ and son of the founder, met union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Monday. On Tuesday, he shared a photograph of the meeting on social media platform X with a simple caption of it being a ‘courtesy meet’.
Though Jogi has not come out with any other statement, the meeting has given rise to speculations that the politically floundering party might be looking to merge with the BJP that has again returned to power in Chhattisgarh – with a record win.
Though the JCCJ contested the assembly polls of November 2023 after showing an initial reluctance, the performance of the party was dismal as it could garner mere 1.23 per cent of votes, lower than the NOTA (none of the above option) votes’ share of 1.26 pc.
Amit Jogi who had himself contested against ex-CM Bhupesh Baghel in Patan, got only 4,822 votes while his mother and former MLA of Kota seat in Bilaspur managed only 8,884 votes in the same seat.
JCCJ was formed in 2016 after the Jogi father-son duo was expelled from the Congress for anti-party activities. In the 2018 polls, though it created some pre-poll ripples mainly on the accord of political strength of founder Ajit Jogi, the new party could manage to win five seats with 7.6 pc vote share while alliance partner Bahujan Samaj Party won two seats.
However, with the death of Jogi in May 2020, the party started floundering under Amit Jogi who hardly has any part of the charisma of his late father. Of the four remaining MLAs, senior leader Devwrat Singh (MLA of Khairagarh) passed away in November 2021. Ruling Congress won both the Marwahi seat held by late Ajit Jogi and Khairagarh seat in the bypolls emphatically.
JCCJ could not contest polls in Marwahi seat reserved for scheduled tribes (ST) after the nomination papers of both Amit Jogi and his wife Richa Jogi were rejected on the ground that a high power committee had found their tribal caste certificate questionable. Just days before elections, Amit Jogi has announced support to the BJP.
The downslide for the party continued as another senior leader Dharamjit Singh (the then MLA of Lormi), who had been raising questions on handling of party affairs, was expelled by the party in September 2022 for anti-party activities. Baloda Bazar MLA Pramod Sharma too was expelled in 2023 for having supported Singh after his expulsion. With this, Renu Jogi was the sole MLA left with the party ahead of the 2023 polls.
Dharamjit Singh joined BJP and won the Takhatpur assembly seat in 2023 polls. Sharma joined Congress but did not contest polls.
At one time after Ajit Jogi’s death, there had been efforts by the party leaders, especially Renu Jogi to merge the JCCJ with the Congress, but despite Sonia Gandhi’s willingness to do so (as Renu Jogi is said to be close to the Congress matriarch), the state leadership scuttled the merger move by putting in a clause that all but Amit Jogi could return to Congress fold – a rider that was obviously unacceptable to Amit Jogi and thus the party.
However, now with complete rout in the assembly polls, the party workers and leaders are reportedly pressuring Jogi to find a better political alternative and at least 80 per cent workers are said to be in favour of merger with BJP to be in the side of the power. The official move by Jogi in this regard remains to be seen.
