State scan: Ajit Jogi may hold the trump card in Chhattisgarh polls 2018

Now Jogi has got an opportunity to get back at the Congress by thwarting its effort to form an alliance with the BSP in Chhattisgarh.

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Ajit Jogi’s JCC and Mayawati’s BSP have joined hands for the Chhattisgarh polls, making it a three-cornered contest Photo:PTI

R Krishna Das

Last Updated : Oct 01 2018 | 7:37 AM IST

Back in 1998, a telephone call from the then Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo, Kanshi Ram, to then Congress stalwart Ajit Jogi became a matter of much talk in undivided Madhya Pradesh.

Kanshi Ram wanted Jogi to quit the Congress and join his party. He was offered the post of party president. However, fearful of losing her heft in the BSP, Mayawati stoutly opposed the plan and this prevented Jogi from leaving the Congress and make public his differences with Digvijaya Singh, a Congressman and then chief minister of the state.

This worked well for Jogi for a while because