Will form govt with absolute majority: Ajit Jogi

Ruling out the possibility of tying up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Congress to form the government in Chhattisgarh, former state chief minister and Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) founder Ajit Jogi on Saturday asserted that his party's alliance with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) would get absolute majority.

"Our (JCC, BSP and CPI) alliance is very strong and is fully confident of getting an absolute majority in the state," Jogi said at a press conference here.

"We will not extend support to BJP or the Congress. Our alliance is capable of forming a government," he added.

On September 20, BSP supremo Mayawati, at a press conference, nominated Jogi as the chief ministerial candidate. A pre-poll alliance between the BSP and JCC was also announced on the same day. Around eight months prior to this, Jogi too had reportedly said that he would contest from the Rajanandgaon seat against incumbent Chief Minister Raman Singh.

However, Jogi's son Amit, on October 19, announced that his father will not contest the upcoming state assembly elections, but will instead campaign for the alliance parties.

Last month, the JCC had also announced an alliance with the CPI in order to strengthen their foothold in the Naxal-hit Bastar region.

The first phase of elections in Chhattisgarh comprising of 18 seats, distributed in eight Naxal-affected districts, was held on November 12. Polling for the remaining 72 seats is scheduled for November 20, and the counting of votes will take place on December 11. A total of 1,291 candidates are in the fray.

In 2013 assembly elections, the BJP bagged 49 seats, Congress got 39, Bahujan Samajwadi Party and an Independent candidate got one seat each in the 90-member assembly.