Jogi: Fresh start

Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Nov. 14: Ajit Jogi sits in his wheelchair fitted in an open Gypsy in Rajnandgaon, surrounded by a crowd.

?Sheeshe ka badan tha, pahadon ka safar tha; jaan bachakar ghar aya hoon, aapke duaon ka asar tha. I was like a body of glass travelling in treacherous hills. But so strong was the impact of your blessings that I have returned home amidst you,? the veteran Congressman tells the people in Urdu, before beginning his speech in Chhattisgarhi language.

Jogi?s speech from the wheelchair prompts an instant lusty response from the crowd: ?Ajit Jogi jindabad.? The former Chhattisgarh chief minister?s face lights up. His vehicle moves on to another village, a cavalcade of 13-15 vehicles following the Gypsy.

An accident during the Lok Sabha polls in May rendered Jogi bedridden. He is unlikely to be able to ever stand on his feet because of the injuries to his spine. However, the physical disability seems to have made him more determined to retake centrestage politically.

The Congress lost to the BJP in the December Assembly polls. In the May Lok Sabha polls, the Congress won only one of the 12 constituencies in the state ? the Mahasamund seat contested by Jogi.

However, the former chief minister smells an opportunity to nail the BJP, with the panchayat, municipal bodies and marketing bodies polls to be held in the state within two or three months. ?The state is all set to witness local bodies? polls before January which will usher in the beginning of the fall of the Raman Singh government,? Jogi told The Telegraph.

?The Madhya Pradesh government has announced the date of the local bodies? polls. But the Raman Singh government has so far not done it for it fears that the BJP nominees will be routed in these polls. The government has nothing to tell the people by way of its achievements, he says.

However, Jogi does not mention the elections in his speeches. ?I was not dying of the injury caused by accident but I was dying to see you? to meet you. Now, I have come to meet you for I cannot live without my people,? he tells his audience.