I will be Chhattisgarh chief minister, Mayawati should be PM, says Ajit Jogi

Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) president Ajit Jogi said he will become the chief minister of the poll-bound state, and believes that Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati should be the next Prime Minister if a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition gets the majority in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.   

"We have made an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Left. It has decided that I will be chief minister," said Ajit Jogi told NDTV.   

"I have always believed that a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition will have a majority in 2019. It will be decided then (who will be PM) but I personally believe Mayawati deserves it as the first scheduled caste, a woman, as a politician from Uttar Pradesh and as a four-time chief minister," Jogi added.

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In September, Mayawati announced an alliance with Jogi’s party in Chhattisgarh which goes to polls on November 12. The move came as a big blow to the Congress which had been making efforts to build a nation-wide alliance against the BJP.

“We have decided after much deliberation that the BSP will contest elections along with Ajit Jogi and he will be our chief ministerial candidate…he is in sync with our party ideology,” Mayawati had said.

Earlier, Jogi had said though he would fight the Congress tooth and nail in the upcoming state Assembly polls, he will not speak against the Gandhi family, with whom he shared warm relations during his long tenure in the grand old party.

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Jogi left the Congress in 2016 and floated his own party.  The four members of the Jogi family belong to three political parties. While Jogi and his son are in the JCC(J), Jogi's wife and daughter-in-law are in the Congress and the BSP respectively.

The Chhattisgarh Assembly polls will be held in two phases -- on November 12 and 20 -- and the results will be announced on December 11. The BJP has been in power in the state since 2003.