By IANS,
Raipur : Several Congress leaders have targetted party veteran and former chief minister Ajit Jogi for his alleged role in the defeat of many candidates in the recent Chhattisgarh assembly elections.
At a meeting to review the probable causes of the Congress’ failure in the November elections, several party candidates blamed Jogi for their own defeat.
The meeting was held Saturday and was chaired by Congress general secretary and Chhattisgarh in-charge V. Narayanasamy.
Talking about her defeat, Ganga Potai said: “Jogi neither campaigned for me in the election nor did he try to persuade his staunch supporter Manoj Mandawi to pull out from the contest. He fought the seat as an Independent candidate and handed over the seat to the BJP.”
Potai contested the Bhanupratappur seat in Kanker district in Bastar region.
Several party candidates spoke of Jogi’s alleged role in their defeat and Narayanasamy assured them that their concerns would be put through to party president Sonia Gandhi, a party source said.
State president Dhanendra Sahu, working president Satyanarayan Sharma, Leader of the Opposition Mahendra Karma and deputy leader of the opposition Bhupesh Baghel, who all are bracketed as Jogi critics, have lost November assembly polls.
The Congress leaders also discussed strategy at the review meet to “boost morale of the party cadre” which is necessary for the party to perform better in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls due by May.
The state has 11 Lok Sabha seats, of which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nine.