Chhattisgarh polls: With 'no other option', Ramdayal Uike returns to BJP

Before returning to the BJP, Uike was the working president of the Congress in Chhattisgarh. Still his candidature on the Congress ticket appeared uncertain

It was December 2000, two months after the state of Chhattisgarh was born. The brass of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state trooped in anger to the official residence of then Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in Raipur. They were bent on stopping a major political upheaval.

Jogi was trying to convince a BJP legislator to vacate his seat for him. By doing so, he could manage to reduce a seat of the BJP without disturbing his party’s tally. The BJP leaders, including current Chief Minister Raman Singh and former minister and Raipur MP Ramesh Bais, sat on a