A week after former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister >Ajit Jogi separated from the Congress> and announced that he would be forming his new political party, senior BJP leader Sohan Potai on Sunday hinted at the formation of his own “tribal-centric” party.
Mr. Potai had organised a meeting of “elders” from “Sarva Samaj” (all sections of society) in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur on Sunday where a decision was taken to form a new outfit six months before the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections which are due in 2018.
“We have not formed our party yet, but it will be formed very soon. We have two years to make preparations for it. It will be a party of local Chhattisgarhi and tribal people,” Mr. Potai told The Hindu .
The four-time MP has been continuously targeting the Chief Minister and his own party for neglecting “tribal cause.”
He was also served a show-cause notice by the BJP last month when he called Chief Minister Raman Singh “an outsourced CM of an outsourced government.”
“I still call this government an outsourced government and I have not answered to their show-cause notice. I have left it on them [the BJP], if they want to expel me, they can,” said Mr. Potai.
Former Union Minister and senior tribal leader Arvind Netam, who has been trying to “socially unite Chhattisgarh tribals,” was also present in the “meeting of elders” called by Mr. Potai.
Asked whether he would join the new political outfit of Mr. Potai, Mr. Netam said, “My role would be that of an advisory. I will provide them moral support. We are running a social movement and unless and until we create a dent to their vote bank or have politically nuisance value, they [establishment] won’t care.”
‘No tie-up with Jogi’ Refuting possibilities of a tie-up with Mr. Jogi’s new party, Mr. Potai refused to call him a tribal leader.
“Ajit Jogi belongs to the Scheduled Caste. We have been fighting against him since long. There is no chance of tie-up with his party,” he said.
The BJP, however, downplayed the formation of two new regional outfits within a week in Chhattisgarh.
“He will not do any kind of damage to us. But the party will have to take some kind of preventive action against him,” said Chhattisgarh BJP spokesperson Sachchidanand Upasani.
