M A I N   N E W S

Jogi’s cassettes to boost Cong campaign
Prashant Sood
Tribune News Service

Mahasamund, April 12
The sound and fury of electoral battle in this sprawling constituency may have lost its feverish pitch after Congress candidate Ajit Jogi suffered severe injuries in a road accident, but the contest is still intense. The BJP has now begun a more positive campaign while the Congress is thinking of ways to convert sympathy for Mr Jogi into votes.

With little possibility of Mr Jogi being able to campaign in the constituency before the voting on April 20, his confidants are seeking to keep up the tempo by playing cassettes of his speeches in villages of the Mahasamund constituency. Impromptu prayer meetings for speedy recovery of Mr Jogi in some of the villages here have given the Congress leaders a lot of hope. An attempt is being made by them to make the contest rich versus poor.

BJP candidate V.C. Shukla and party leader Pawan Diwan are no more anti-Jogi in their rhetoric. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, whose Bharat Uday Yatra left Mahasamund today, shared information about Mr Jogi’s health with mediapersons. The BJP government in the state has been prompt in providing state plane to take Mr Jogi to Mumbai and in deciding to bear the expenses of his treatment. Mr Shukla, Chief Minister Raman Singh and his Cabinet colleagues yesterday visited Mr Jogi at the hospital here where he was admitted to after his vehicle rammed into a tree, near Mainpur in Mahasamund, in the early hours of Sunday resulting in severe head and spinal injuries. Mr Jogi’s driver and a Congress leader also suffered injuries in the accident.

Unlike the past when Mr Jogi was the main target of their attack, the BJP leaders refrained from talking about Mr Jogi at the party’s rally in Mahasamund yesterday evening. Mr Shukla said later that he hoped Mr Jogi recovered quickly and returned to Mahasamund to give him a good fight.

Campaigning at a scorching pace since his name was announced about 10 days back as Congress candidate from Mahasamund, Mr Jogi seemed to have covered a lot of ground. His Saturday’s itinerary included a visit to 49 villages of Mahasamund. With the Congress having only one MLA in the eight Assembly seats of the Mahasamund parliamentary constituency, Mr Jogi was focusing on rural areas, reminding people of the work he had done for them in three years as the Chief Minister.

Mr Jogi’s loyalists, including MLAs, former legislators and PCC leaders have pitched in to carry forward his campaign in Mahasamund. Continuing to target Mr Shukla, they say he has few achievements to his credit as an MP from the area and was seeking votes in the name of the Prime Minister.

Hoping to evoke sympathy and support for Mr Jogi through his cassettes, the Congress workers point to the possibility of his son coming to Mahasamund in the last days of campaigning.

Ajit Jogi’s condition stable
Tribune News Service

Mumbai, April 12
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, who met with a serious accident at Raipur on Sunday morning, is showing signs of recovery after being operated upon in a Mumbai hospital, his wife Renu told reporters here.

Addressing mediapersons outside the Bombay Hospital in downtown Mumbai, Dr Renu Jogi, an ophthalmologist herself, said her husband was stable and showing signs of recovery. “We are optimistic and have full faith in God. He is recovering, stable and responding to the treatment,” Dr Renu said.

Reporters from print and electronic media were camped outside the hospital for information about the politician.

Mr Ajit Jogi, who has been put on a ventilator after an operation on his spine, is conscious. Doctors at Bombay Hospital have, however, kept him under observation in the Intensive Care Unit for the next few days.

Mr Jogi will be in bed for the next four to six weeks even after being declared out of danger, according to doctors attending on him. A star campaigner of the Congress party in Chhattisgarh, Mr Jogi is likely to be out of action till long after the polls.

A team of prominent doctors led by cardiologist B. K. Goyal, neurologist Dr Chandrasekhar Deorajpuri and others operated on Mr Jogi for more than three hours on Sunday night after he met with an automobile accident at Raipur. Dr Goyal told reporters that doctors in Raipur had done an excellent job in stabilizing Mr Jogi’s condition before he was rushed to Mumbai by air.

Mr Jogi’s spine was dislocated and doctors had to work on realigning it.

Senior Maharashtra politicians are visiting the hospital to inquire about Mr Jogi’s health. Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde visited the hospital on Sunday night. Other senior Congress Party leaders, including Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ranjit Deshmukh, Congress Working Committee member Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was earlier in-charge of Chhattisgarh affairs, and former Lok Sabha Speaker Shivraj Patil were among others who made inquiries with Dr Renu.