By IANS,
Raipur : Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi’s loyalists in the Congress have launched a campaign so that the party nominates his son Amit Jogi as candidate for the Rajya Sabha from the state.
A Rajya Sabha seat being held by Congress leader Mohsina Kidwai is set to fall vacant soon in the state and several state-level Congress leaders have their eyes on it.
A few young leaders, led by Bipin Kusulia, of the party’s state unit shot off a letter to national General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, saying Jogi’s lone son, Amit Jogi, fits the bill to represent the party in the upper house of parliament from Chhattisgarh.
They even sent a copy of the letter to media houses Wednesday, signed by several Youth Congress and National Student’s Union of India (NSUI) leaders.
Ajit Jogi’s political secretary, Shailesh Nitin Trivedi’s fax message to media houses the same day, however, said Bipin Kusulia was not authorised to make any statement on behalf of Jogi’s family and questioned the authenticity of the letter as well.
Amit Jogi told IANS by phone from Bilaspur where he is based as a lawyer in the Chhattisgarh High Court: “I am shocked to know about a campaign launched for me for the Rajya Sabha seat. Bipin has overstepped his authority, my family has nothing to do with this man (Bipin) and his campaign.”
Though the Jogi family has totally disassociated itself from a Rajya Sabha campaign launched for junior Jogi, several senior Congress leaders feel “it is a calculated move by the Jogi family.”
“The Jogi family has hit back on the man who led the Rajya Sabha campaign for Amit, purely because he came to know that any campaign before Rahul Gandhi or Congress central leadership for a person who is known as ‘Sanjay Gandhi of Chhattisgarh’, will backfire on the Jogi family,” a senior leader said.
However, several of Ajit Jogi’s opponents have begun compiling files about his son’s past details to put up before the Congress central leadership if the Jogi loyalists intensify their campaign.