B'day Special - Ajit Jogi, the former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh

Ajit Jogi, former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh is the candidate for Mahasamund seat in the state.Mahasamund cast its vote in the 5th phase of Lok Sabha Election, 2014 on 17th April.He filed his nominations for Lok Sahba Elections 2014 on 21st March from Mahasamund. Ajit Jogi won Mahasamund seat in 2004 by over 1.25 lakh votes. He'd thus defeated nine time MP V C Shukla of BJP. Let us know more about Ajit Jogi – on his 68th birthday:Ajit Jogi was born on 29th April, 1946 to Kashi Prasad Jogi in Bilaspur District, MP. Ajit Jogi was married to Dr Renu Jogi on October 8, 1975. The couple had been blessed with a daughter Anusha Jogi and son Amit Jogi. The couple is survived by Amit Jogi, a MLA of Marwahi constituency in Chhattisgarh. Anusha Jogi committed suicide on 12th May 2000 in Indore. Her father's refusal to allow her to marry the man she loved compelled her to take such extreme steps. Ajit Jogi is presently represents Marwah Scheduled Tribe constituency. He is also President of the Adivasi Mahasangh, a tribal body.Ajit Jogi was in the Indian Administrative Service of the 1971 batch. He was later persuaded to join politics by the late Rajiv Gandhi. He proved to be an adept learner, rose quickly in the party hierarchy.His luck ran out when his government was ousted by the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2003He courted controversy when he was accused of "bribing BJP legislators" in an attempt to form a Congress government. He was suspended for two months. Though the Congress leadership revoked his suspension, Jogi has not been able to return to the political centrestage.Ajit Singh is an Alumni of Maulana Azad College of Technology, Bhopal. Here he won University Gold Medal in 1968. He further went on to pursue LL B from faculty of Law, University of Delhi. Ajit Jogi was an educationist, a social worker and politician. Apart from politics, Ajit Jogi has an inclination to occult science, writing and reading. He enjoys sports like swimming, trekking and horse riding. On completion of his education, Ajit briefly worked as a lecturer at the Government Engineering College, Raipur. He quit his prestigious position of being an IAS officer in 1986 only to initiate a career in politics under the guidance of Arjun Singh. Arjun Singh recognized his ability and sent him off to the Rajya Sabha right away. He then spent twelve years there. In 2000, after Chhattisgarh was bifurcated from Madhya Pradesh, he had his name permanently labeled as being the first Chief Minister of the State.Ajit Yogi was an excellent debater in his college. He had acquired many awards too. Being an acclaimed orator, he is able to make powerfully influential speeches – an attribute much desired in elections. In 1998 he was elected as a Member of Parliament to the 12th Lok Sabha for Raigarh constituency. In 2008 Ajit Jogi was elected as the MLA representing Marwahi constituency. Recently he was slapped notice by theelection commission for allegedly violating poll code by distributing inland letters and voter slips without name of the publisher. Ajit Jogi is strongly in favor of caste – based reservations. He even opposed his party colleague Janardhan Dwivedi's controversial suggestion about ending caste based quotes. He justifies that the system of reservation for SC ST's and OBC's had been introduced to end caste based inequalities. He feels that it would be wrong to end this arrangement which benefits the disadvantaged sections of the society. Ajit Jogi met with a fatal road accident during an election campaign in 2004. Whip – lash injury to the neck and serious damage to the spinal cord had left all his four limbs paralysed. Since then he had been confined to the wheel chair. For Ajit Jogi, this had been the most frustrating period of his political career. After being bound to a wheelchair for nearly nine years Ajit Jogi became the first person in Asia to walk again with the help of e- legs. Ajit Jogi is the most talked about, loved, revered and disliked leader in Chhattisgarh. He comes in the same league as his arch rival Raman Singh; present Chief Minister of the State. Ajit has been often accused of indulging in factionalism and mounting pressure on the Congress party to give him a key role in the state. With the results of the Lok Sabha Elections due to be revealed on 16th May, fingers are crossed by all the parties all over the country. Even though Ajit Jogi can breathe a little more easily as his constituency has already cast its vote, the anticipation of result would be unbearable. We wish him a wonderful birthday and a successful year ahead.