Ajit Jogi’s wife denied Congress ticket, might quit party

Bhopal: In a surprising move, Congress on Thursday denied ticket to Renu Jogi, wife of former chief minister Ajit Jogi, to seek re-election from her Kota seat in Chhattisgarh in the November 20 Assembly polls. Ms Jogi, a sitting Congress MLA, had been camping in Delhi for the past few days to lobby with the party high command for her re-nomination in the Kota assembly constituency in the coming polls.

“She had failed to get appointment with party high command,” a senior Congress leader of Chhattisgarh disclosed to this newspaper on Thursday. The Congress ended month-long suspense over her re-nomination from the seat when it declared its final list of 19 candidates on Thursday evening in which Ms Jogi did not figure. Ms Jogi however told a section of media on Thursday that she would not leave Congress in spite of being denied ticket by the party.

“I am in Congress,” she said.

Sources however said she was most likely to file nomination for Kota seat as a candidate of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh founded by her husband a couple of years ago.

If she joined JCC, then the last link of Jogi family with Congress would be snapped.

Senior Jogi, a former Congress Working Committee (CWC) member, had left the party to float JCC in 2016 following expulsion of his son MLA Amit, a sitting MLA, from Congress in the wake of allegation of his link to the reported fixing of an assembly by-election in Chhattisgarh leading to victory of BJP candidate. Senior Jogi on Thursday filed nomination for Marwahi (ST) Assembly seat as a JCC candidate.

Interestingly, Mr Jogi’s daughter-in-law Richa has filed nomination from Akaltara seat in Chhattisgarh as a BSP candidate.