Chhattisgarh's first chief minister Ajit Jogi dies

RAIPUR: Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi died here on Friday after prolonged illness, doctors said.

Jogi, 74, was battling for life at a private hospital in Raipur for the last 20 days.

Jogi, the first chief minister of the state, was admitted there on May 9 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home.

He had since then remained critical and was on ventilator support. Jogi has served as the first chief minister of the state of Chhattisgarh from November 2000 to November 2003. He parted ways with the Congress in 2016 and went on to form the Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J).

A veteran of the Indian Police Service and the Indian Administrative Service, Jogi was convinced by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to quit the services and join the Congress. And it was Gandhi family loyalists, Digvijaya Singh and Arjun Singh, who brought Ajit Jogi into political prominence.

In 1986, Jogi entered the Rajya Sabha, where he remained for two terms till 1998. In 1998, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Raigarh and won, but he lost a year later from Shahdol.

When Chhattisgarh was formed in 2000, the Congress which had 48 out of the 90 seats, was keen on nominating a tribal as Chief Minister.

Jogi's tenure as chief minister wasn't an easy one as he faced opposition from the BJP as well as within the Congress.

Jogi contested as a Congress candidate in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

During the campaign, Jogi was injured in a car accident which left him partially paralysed. He won the seat by nearly 1.2 lakh votes.

It was the only seat the Congress won in Chhattisgarh in that election, sealing Jogi's status as the tallest party leader in the state. The Congress projected Jogi once again in the 2008 assembly elections, but lost to the BJP under Dr Raman Singh. In the 2014 general elections, Ajit Jogi lost to the BJP.