Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi’s condition is “very critical” and he continues to be on ventilator support, doctors said on Tuesday. He on Sunday had slips into coma a day after being put on a ventilator due to cardiac arrest.

The 74-year-old leader and first chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Ajit Jogi, was admitted to Shree Narayana Hospital in Raipur on Saturday after he collapsed in his home garden at 12:30 pm. His wife, Renu Jogi, an MLA, and son Amit took him to the hospital.

Advertisement

The doctors have started “audio therapy” by making him listen to his favourite songs on earphones, with neurological activities of Jogi, “almost nil” as he  remains in coma.

As per doctors, a sweet tamarind seed had got stuck in Mr Jogi’s windpipe.

“The condition of Jogi remained very critical and he is still in coma,” said Dr Sunil Khemka, Medical Director of the hospital.

“His neurological activities are almost nil. Doctors are making all efforts to revive his brain activity. We have also started giving him an ”audio therapy” by making him listen to his favourite songs through earphones, but so far our efforts yielded no success,” he said.

Functioning of Mr Jogi’s heart, blood pressure and urine output remained under control, he added.

Meanwhile, nursing staff at the hospital prayed for speedy recovery of the former CM as part of the International Nurses Day on Tuesday, Dr Khemka said.

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.