The alleged leaked tapes of conversations between senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Ajit Jogi, his son Amit Jogi, his “associates” and Puneet Gupta (son-in-law of Chief Minister Raman Singh) to “fix” a by-election last year kicked up a political storm in Chhattisgarh and in Delhi on Wednesday.
An English newspaper from New Delhi published transcripts of the telephonic conversations involving the Jogis, Mr. Puneet Gupta, alleged Jogi associates Firoz Siddiqui and Ameen Menon and the Congress candidate for the Antagad by-election last year, Manturam Pawar.
The ruling BJP had a cakewalk after Mr. Pawar’s last-minute withdrawal.
In New Delhi, the Congress, after demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi seek the resignation of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, served a notice on Mr. Amit Jogi.
Congress leader B.K. Hari Prasad, in-charge of Congress’ Chhattisgrah unit, told The Hindu that since the senior, Mr. Ajit Jogi is a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) only the high command can decide what action should be taken against him. “His son Amit comes under the state command. So we have served a notice on him and we will take a decision whether to expel him or not after examining his response and the report of our internal probe.”
Mr. Ajit Jogi , however, called the report “false and fabricated” and said that he would file a defamation case against the reporter and the newspaper for making “baseless allegations.”
His son too said he would be filing a defamation case.
Asked if he knew Mr. Firoz Siddiqui, Marwahi MLA Amit Jogi said: “He is not some confidant of mine whom I will trust even remotely and this man says he represented my family which is absolutely false.”
“My father said that Mr. Pawar will not win and so he should not be given ticket. The person we opposed is given the party ticket, but when he withdraws, the blame is on us.”