Jogi goes for make or break

So far, Ajit Jogi had been asserting his loyalty while taking obvious steps towards a rebellion against the Congress. On Sunday, the former Chhattisgarh chief minister left no one in doubt. He avoided mention of the Congress at an election rally he held for candidates he is promoting in Abhanpur, the stronghold of former state party chief Dhanendra Sahu.

The rally marked the start of a campaign tour that Jogi plans to wind up in the constituency of another of his rivals, current PCC chief Charan Das Mahant. The tour coincides with the Congress's official campaign, which resumed on Friday after it had been suspended following the Naxal attack in Darbha. Jogi had skipped the relaunch, made from Rajnandgaon, BJP chief minister Raman Singh's constituency.

There were few signs that Jogi's rally had anything to do with the Congress. Jogi and his supporters did turn out in scarves in the traditional Congress colours, but there were no posters of the Congress, nor the customary references to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.

His objective

Repeatedly sidelined by the high command, Jogi, now 68 and bound to a wheelchair, is staring at possible political oblivion should the Congress come to power. Over the last one-and-a-half months, he had made several trips to Delhi demanding that either he or a nominee of his be made the chief ministerial candidate, but the Congress instead downsized him. In the recent PCC expansion, he was confined to the election committee alongside several other leaders. His wife, Renu, was made state vice-president alongside 15 others; his son Amit got nothing.

In a traditionally bipolar state, Jogi's gambit now appears to be to collect the numbers, hope for a hung assembly and make his support necessary for forming the government. From within the Congress, he got 15 MLAs to a snacks party and then 21 to an iftaar party last week. In the first election since the Darbha attack, a rebel he put up defeated the Congress candidate in a nagar panchayat in Bastar. In the last assembly elections, his dummies had caused the defeat of then leader of the opposition Mahendra Karma, then PCC chief Sahu and programme coordinator Bhupesh Baghel.