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STATES:
CHATTISGARH
Balanced
Cabinet
That's
Jogi's first test. He already has a list of 10 MLAs from Digvijay and
another five from Vora, Kamal Nath and Arjun Singh put together. S.C.
Shukla has settled for a cabinet berth for his son Amitesh, a first time
MLA. And Shukla's supporters will have to be enticed with offers of good
portfolios. "I don't think he will be able to disagree with any of
the demands, considering his own perilous position of someone totally
dependent on 10 Janpath's support," says a senior cabinet minister
owing loyalty to Digvijay.
After he has dispensed with partymen he will have to contend with the
BJP and the drought. "The Congress has given us a gift in the shape
of Jogi," says BJP Rajya Sabha member Dilip Singh Judeo who is ready
to organise a "Ghar Vapasi" programme in tribal-dominated Sarguja.
In these Vapasi programmes tribal Christians are offered honourable return
to Hinduism. Jogi has been extended an invitation to return. An open unsaid
invitation of another sort also lies on Shukla's table wherein he has
been invited to ask for BJP's support if he is able to rope in 16 MLAs.
The BJP's agenda is clear: elections in six month's time.
For Jogi,
however, Raipur seems to be his land of Karma. He had cycled to
work here as a college lecturer in the late 1960s, driven around town
as the collector in the early 1980s and now will drive to work to the
old district hospital's operation theatre which has been converted into
his official chamber. "My first priority would be irrigation and
then tightening of the administrative set-up. I want to make this state
as rich as it actually has the potential to be," he says.
His talk
of potential is well justified. After the separation, Chhattisgarh has
become power surplus. It used to contribute 38 per cent of Madhya Pradesh's
power, while its needs are only about 25 per cent, leaving a huge surplus
of at least 300 MW. There are other obvious advantages of separation as
well. Chhattisgarh gets only about a third of the population of nearly
2.75 crore people with a huge land mass of over 1,43,000 sq km to accommodate
them. Madhya Pradesh's forest cover of 33 per cent is more than the land
area of most states. Now 75 per cent of it is in Chhattisgarh. The great
set back is the road network-only about 21 per cent of the new state's
population has access to roads.
Though he
has not lived in Chhattisgarh for the past 25 years, Jogi still speaks
the dialect fluently and has not lost touch with the problems here. If
he is able to tackle the drought situation, which should be right up his
alley after this experience as collector, he will have at least justified
his top billing as the "most tribal" for the job.
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