Tape row: Ajit Jogi asked for explanation

The Congress has sought an explanation from former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi over alleged “fixing” of a bypoll, an issue that saw his son Amit Jogi expelled from the party last month.

The Central Disciplinary Action Committee of the party, headed by senior leader A.K. Antony, has asked Mr Ajit Jogi to furnish his explanation on the issue within two weeks. The action comes a month after audio tapes emerged suggesting financial inducements behind the party candidate’s withdrawal from the fray in the Antagarh Assembly bypoll in 2014 to facilitate the victory of the BJP candidate.

The purported conversations between key political players of that time also hinted at the role of Ajit Jogi and Amit. Both Ajit and Amit Jogi had denied their involvement in the unsavoury episode.

Ajit Jogi’s son Amit, who is a party MLA, was expelled last month. The Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee had also passed a resolution seeking the party high command’s nod to expel his father, a former Chhattisgarh CM, over the tape row. A meeting of the DAC on February 1 had discussed the issue in detail and had said that it would take action in “due course of time”. On the appeal filed by Mr Amit Jogi to revoke his expulsion, the DAC has decided to forward it to the state PCC for its comments. Mr Ajit Jogi had claimed that the allegations against him were not probed.

On the other hand, Mumbai Regional Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam has got a reprieve with the party accepting his apology over the publication of controversial articles slamming Jawaharlal Nehru and terming Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s father a “fascist soldier” and asking him “to be careful in future”.

“Sanjay Nirupam accepted the responsibility for publication of the grossly inaccurate, baseless and malicious article against the Congress leadership in the party magazine, Congress Darshan, and submitted his unconditional apology for the same.

The Central DAC, while accepting his apology, cautioned him to be careful in the future while editing, printing and publishing materials in Congress Darshan so that this type of grave mistake is not repeated,” sources in the party said.

Left embarrassed by the articles criticising Nehru’s policies on Kashmir and China, the Congress had last month issued a show-cause notice to the magazine’s editor, Mr Nirupam.