C’garh: Ajit Jogi-founded JCC (J) offers to join Congress, Pilot constitutes committee to review case

Raipur: The Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC)(J), founded by former chief minister late Ajit Jogi, has offered to merge with the Congress.

JCC(J) national president and Jogi widow Renu Jogi wrote a letter to the Chhattisgarh unit Congress president Deepak Baij urging him to consider her party’s offer to merge with the Congress.

The letter dated December 18 said that the party’s core committee has unanimously decided to merge with the Congress since both the parties have similar ideologies.

The letter signed by Ms Jogi, a former MLA, and her son and state party president Amit Jogi, also a former MLA, was also marked to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh affairs Sachin Pilot and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Charan Das Mahant.

Mr Pilot has constituted a committee to consider the application by the JCC (J), a senior Congress leader said on Thursday.

“Mr Pilot has constituted a seven-member committee to review the matter”, veteran Congress leader and former deputy chief minister T S Singh Deo told this newspaper.

He however refused to comment on the issue, saying that “I have not been consulted on the matter so far. Hence, I cannot give my view on the issue”.

Former chief minister Mr Jogi had formed JCC (J) on June 21, 2016 by snapping his nearly four decade-old ties with the Congress.

The move to float the region party followed the expulsion of Junior Jogi from Congress in the wake of allegation that the father-son duo was involved in the withdrawal of Congress nominee in Antagarh Assembly by-elections in Chhattisgarh in 2014, leading to victory of the BJP candidate.

JCC (J) had entered into alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the 2018 Assembly polls and won seven seats.

The party had however decided to stay away from the November, 2023 Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh.