Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi has been put on ventilator after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home today afternoon. His condition is said to be “serious”.
Jogi, 74, was admitted to Shree Narayana Hospital in Raipur after he collapsed in his home garden at 12:30 pm.
His wife, Renu Jogi, an MLA, and son Amit are with him in the hospital.
A bureaucrat-turned politician, Ajit Jogi had served as the first Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh from November 2000 to November 2003 in then Congress government, after the state came into existence.
He quit the Congress in 2016 and launched a new political outfit Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J).
Jogi had then accused the state Congress of working as the “B Team” of BJP. He had been sulking for some time following the expulsion of his son Amit, after some audio tapes purportedly indicated his involvement in fixing a by-poll in Chhattisgarh in favour of BJP.
The Congress had then termed his exit from the party as “good riddance”.
Meanwhile, last year, an FIR was registered against Ajit Jogi for allegedly obtaining a fake caste certificate which claimed that he was a tribal.
The case was registered after a complaint was filed by Sameera Paikra, the 2013 Assembly polls BJP candidate from Marwahi seat, in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur. According to Paikra, Jogi had allegedly obtained the fake caste certificate in 1967.