Jogi says he is not a CM candidate

Still he does not rule out his chances of contesting VS polls

Raipur, May 23, 2013

In a self-contradictory statement senior Congress legislator Ajit Jogi on Thursday said though he was not a chief ministerial candidate, he would obey high command’s orders to contest assembly polls - a discreet indication that nobody in party’s state unit can discard his CM candidature. Jogi’s paradoxical talks follow union minister of state Charandas Mahant’s recent affirmation that he is not in CM race. 

Jogi, who was talking to scribes at his residence, said the party had never projected CM candidate before polls and it would stick to the same trend in state Vidhan Sabha elections too.

He further negated that there was any factionalism in the party and that he was running a parallel organisation in state. He claimed that the Congress was united and committed to defeat BJP in upcoming polls. 

Terming the killing of villagers during Edasmeta encounter as genocide, he said such incidents had been happening in the state for the past couple of years.

He asked if the government claims of killing naxals in Edasmeta encounter then why it announced Rs five lakh compensation for the family members of the deceased. 

“I suppose there is no provision in the government to give compensation to deceased Maoists’ families. So, by declaring compensation the government proves that the killed people were not extremists. In this scenario, a case of murder under section 302 of IPC should be filed against responsible authorities,” he said.

He said Edasmeta incident was so grave that even if nobody would file public interest litigation (PIL) into it, the High Court can take suo moto cognisance of the matter. 

On government’s vikas yatra he said if the ruling party had done development then there was no need to take out any yatra. He said BJP’s vikas yatra would face similar consequence like its ‘Indian shining’ and ‘feel good’ slogans. He said if the government was distributing lanterns to villagers then that entails there was power shortage in rural belts.

He further alleged of massive corruption in laptop distribution scheme. Advocating that the laptop should also be given to physiotherapy and pharmacy students he said the government should rather give such gadgets to students from class VIII or IX so that they could make full use of it till they complete their college education.

Asked about his desire to be pitted against CM Raman Singh in VS polls, he said he was raring for that and had even expressed it in 2008 elections.

On Congress parivartan yatra advancing to Bastar division he said the party aimed to win at least 11 out of 12 assembly seats of the tribal region. He said polling in the region was not transparent in previous polls, but it would not happen in upcoming elections as Congress had found the solution and conveyed it to state election commission.