Chhattisgarh: Rahul plan meets resistance; Jogi trouble for Cong again

Raipur:  When Rahul Gandhi spoke about changes we ‘cannot even imagine’ in the Congress soon after the party’s disastrous performance in the recently concluded Assembly polls, it was believed that he would wield the axe to chop off deadwood in the party organisation. His obvious target, party sources sought to convince anyone who would care, was the regional satraps who have been clinging on to the party like parasites since ages without contributing anything to it. If this indeed was Rahul’s idea of change, then he clearly underestimated the incredible survival abilities and nuisance potential of these leaders. The Rajasthan state unit of the Congress has seen mobilization of forces from the old guard to resist any move from the party high command to put Sachin Pilot in complete command of the state. In Madhya Pradesh senior leaders have already demonstrated to the party bosses what they are capable of delivering if they unite – they are suspected to have indulged in an act of sabotage in the elections to cut Rahul favourite Jyotiraditya Scindia to size. In Chhattisgarh, Ajit Jogi is back to his usual divisive antics after the elevation of Bhupesh Baghel as the Congress state unit chief. [caption id=“attachment_130237” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PTI[/caption] Baghel happens to be the most widely recognized face within the party who has never made an attempt to mask his relationship with Jogi, which is anything but cordial. Jogi lost no time in responding to the move. He has announced to the press his decision not to contest the general election in 2014 and that he would rather make himself available to canvass for the party in the whole state. He has been reported to have said he will not fight “even if asked by Rahul Gandhi to do so”. Curiously, he had seen nothing wrong in the possibility of contesting the state assembly elections held last month. Jogi had been a sitting MLA from Marwahi seat and his wife from the neighboring constituency Kota. The former gave up his claim at the very last moment when the party refused a third ticket in the family. He had to make way for his son, keeping alive his own prospects of fighting the Lok Sabha elections. However, things have changed in a short time. Before the Congress faced defeat for the third successive time in the state, Jogi had succeeded in creating an illusion of his hold over the Scheduled Castes vote bank politics. The results didn’t support his claims. Not only did nine out of ten seats reserved for the community go to the BJP, in several of the other seats in central Chhattisgarh where SCs are present in a significant number, the Congress lost. Most of the defeated second rung leaders of the party had rushed off to Delhi complaining about Jogi heaping mischief upon them. Perhaps someone in Delhi found some merit in their complaints. And then came the announcement of Baghel’s appointment as the new PCC chief. An equally important announcement for the post of the leader of the opposition is in the pipeline. All the probable names doing the rounds – be it of TS Singhdeo, the second term MLA and a state party vice-president, or that of Satya Narayan Sharma, another veteran and an ex-minister - belong to non-Jogi camps. This means serious trouble ahead for Jogi. He had succeeded in making his pressure felt in the last ten years on the strength of the MLAs who had got the tickets on his recommendation in 2003 and 2008. In the recent election, 27 of the party’s 35 sitting MLAs lost. Most of them belonged to the Jogi camp. This has battered the strength of his camp and eroded his bargaining power in Delhi. The most probable constituency for Jogi to fight the general election would have been Mahasamund. A traditional seat of the Shuklas - Shyama Charan and Vidya Charan -,Jogi had fought from here and won in 2004. He was the only Congress candidate who had won in the state. After the Bastar ambush in which party leaders were killed by the Maoists, the party decided to give tickets to the kin of these leaders. VC Shukla was among those killed and his daughter Pratibha Pande was promised a ticket to contest for Lok Sabha from Mahasamund. Jogi had switched to the state assembly in the last elections and there was no significant claimant for this seat then. Is a Jogi confined to a constituency be a better bet for the Congress then a Jogi left free to roam the whole state? The question confronts the party. His opponents are keeping their fingers crossed. Whatever the answer, Rahul might find the deadwood in the party much more obstinate than he would have imagined.