Ajit Jogi

New Delhi, July 21: A loaded but not yet activated report on Ajit Jogi’s tribal status is threatening to derail the revived career of the former chief minister, one of few frontline Congress leaders left in Chhattisgarh after a Maoist massacre.

The BJP government led by Raman Singh is learnt to be in possession of a report that questions the authenticity of the Scheduled Tribe status of Jogi, who has built his political career on the clout he commands among tribal voters.

A state government source said the report found Jogi’s caste certificate “to be suspect”.

If Jogi’s certificate is formally declared fake, he will not be able to contest his traditional seat, Marwahi, which is reserved for tribals.

Chhattisgarh has general category seats but the political cost to Jogi’s reputation in such an eventuality and the attendant legal problems could effectively swamp the leader who is seeking a larger role after battling grievous injuries suffered in an accident.

Sources said the Raman Singh government, now under attack from the Congress over an alleged cooperative bank scam, was expected to wait till the eve of the Assembly elections in November or December before making public the report on Jogi.

The release will be timed to ensure that Jogi does not have enough time to challenge the findings in a court and hope for a clean chit before the elections, the sources said.

The state government had set up a quasi-judicial body to look into Jogi’s caste certificate on a directive from the Supreme Court, which had found evidence on his caste inconclusive while dismissing a petition a few years ago.

“The Supreme Court gave a time limit of two months for this vigilance report,” Jogi said, asked about the report that was submitted in April. “What was the government doing for the last two years? I have not been asked by this committee for my response, but I know the first committee gave a favourable report,” Jogi added, referring to an earlier inquiry.

Aides of Jogi, who is at odds with the high command, fear a legal quagmire will help the state BJP neutralise the only real challenge left after the assassination of the frontline Congress leaders in the May 25 Maoist attack.

The tribal status of Jogi, an engineer who had cleared the IPS and IAS exams in the general category, has long been in dispute. Some have claimed that Jogi is a Dalit. Different states have different yardsticks, and the Chhattisgarh committee appears to have banked on land records.

The sources said the latest probe report suggested that the land records did not support Jogi’s claim. The land Jogi owns now belonged to one Ramai Chamar, a member of a Scheduled Caste, and the report concluded that the family inherited it, the sources said.

Jogi says his father Kashi Prakash Jogi bought the land in 1933 and the sale deed was with him. If it was an ancestral property, his brothers and sisters, too, would have got their share, he points out.

Earlier inquiries into records and people’s testimonies in his village, Sarbahra, and grandfather Dularwa’s village, Jogisar, and educational documents suggested he was a Kanwar, a tribal.

Whatever be the truth, the politics surrounding the controversy is bound to have a far-reaching impact on the next round of Assembly polls in winter — a crucial test for the national parties before the 2014 general election.

The Congress hopes to wrest Chhattisgarh from the BJP to preserve the balance as Madhya Pradesh looks difficult. Retaining Delhi and Rajasthan, too, is a formidable task.