The Hindu : New Delhi News : ‘Jogi paying cash for votes'

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Sunday, May 08, 2011
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‘Jogi paying cash for votes'

Aman Sethi

Jagdalpur: A much-viewed and circulated video clip in Chhattisgarh's Bastar Lok Sabha constituency shows the former Chief Minister and Congressman, Ajit Jogi, seated atop a carriage with a slender bundle of 100-rupee notes and placing a note and a garland in each of what appears a series of sacrificial ‘thalis'.

At a press conference, senior BJP leader Ramvichar Netam charged that Mr. Jogi was distributing cash and gifts in clear violation of the campaigning norms and said the party had complained to the Election Commission.

As campaigning ended for the Bastar by-election, both the Congress and the BJP are pushing hard to claim the seat previously held by veteran BJP leader Baliram Kashyap. He died earlier this year, and Sunday's contest is between his son Dinesh Kashyap and Kowasi Lakhma, sole Congress MLA from the region.

‘False and offensive'

“It is completely false and offensive to suggest that Ajit Jogi was handing out cash for votes,” said his son, Amit Jogi, when asked about the clip. “In the video clip, my father is outside a temple in Bacheli. As he is wheelchair-bound, he could not enter the mandir and so the ‘thalis' for ‘aarti' were brought to him. It was a simple donation.”

The district police have confirmed that they are examining the contents of the clip and a first information report has been filed in the Bacheli Thana in Dantewada district.

Late last month, Mr. Ajit Jogi wrote to the Election Commission, providing a list of 20 government officials who, he alleges, were openly supporting the BJP regime in the State and could not be trusted to conduct a free and fair election. The list includes names from Bijapur Collector Rajat Kumar to a Thana in-charge in a remote police station at Madded.

Mr. Ajit Jogi also says that a controversial 2006 anti-Maoist programme, Salwa Judum, will cast a shadow over this election. In his letter, he notes, “according to official figures about 27,000 people are still residing in these [Salwa Judum] camps ... under police protection and they depend on the State government for everything ... there is no fair play and camp inmate-voters have no independence in exercising their votes.”

The election results are expected on May 13.

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