It was during his stint at Sidhi that he built his political contacts with the late Congress leader, Arjun Singh. There is no doubt that Jogi was the most acceptable Congress leader in the state. As for the local Congress leadership, he alleges that it has "abjectly surrendered to the Raman Singh-led BJP government". Yet all its wealth and rich resources are being looted by "outside industrialists with the help of the BJP government", Jogi claims. On November 1, 2000, when the new state of Chhattisgarh was carved out of MP, Jogi became its first chief minister.

Source: India Today June 10, 2016 08:58 UTC