Congress reacts nonchalently to Ajit Jogi's imminent exit

Reacting to former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi's imminent exit from the party, the Congress on Thursday said that migration is a continuous process in politics and there is always an arrival as well as departure lounge here.

A Congress leader described Jogi's departure as "good riddance" for the party.

Jogi earlier hinted at floating a new political party and accused the Congress of being the 'B' team of the Bharatiya Janata Party in his state.

"We have heard that Ajit Jogi is leaving us; he was always a respected member for us. He was in the party for 30-35 years and was made a parliamentarian, a chief minister and a union minister," party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.

"Whenever a Congressman leaves, he always uses the Congress while coining the name of his new party. Mamata Banerjee left and formed the Trinamool Congress, Sharad Pawar left and founded the Nationalist Congress Party. So, the brand name of the Congress always remains," Ramesh added in an apparent dig at former party leaders.

He said Jogi should have talked to the Congress high command if he had any issues within the party.

Reacting to a question if the party will approach Jogi for returning to the Congress fold, Ramesh said: "Migration is a continuous process in politics and there is always a arrival and departure lounge here."

Another senior Congress leader, on the condition of anonymity, said the party observers believe that it will only gain by Jogi's departure.

"He was playing from (Chief Minister) Raman Singh's team. Last time, we lost with a wafer-thin margin because we lost most of the seats in his (Jogi's) stronghold in Chhattisgarh," the Congress leader said.

Recently, his son Amit Jogi was expelled from the Congress over horse-trading charge.

A leaked telephonic conversation had allegedly pointed out that Amit Jogi had fixed a by-election in Chhattisgarh wherein he "sold the seat to the BJP, putting only a demo fight from the Congress side".

--IANS

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