Ajit Jogi, first chief minister of Chhatisgarh, passes away

Ajit Jogi, who was also the first chief minister of the state, was admitted there on May 9 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home.

Twenty days after being admitted to a private hospital in Raipur, first Chief minister of Chhattisgarh Ajit Jogi passed away on Friday after suffering two cardiac arrests. Jogi had suffered multiple arrests in the past 20 days, was comatose and on ventilator support as doctors were trying to revive his brain activity.

On Friday, Ajit Jogi breathed his last at around 3.30 pm at Shri Narayana hospital in Raipur. Dr Sunil Khemka, a senior doctor looking after Jogi said, “He suffered two heart attacks one after the other, and we tried to revive his heart activity for over two hours, but he was finally declared dead.”

On May 9, Jogi had suffered a cardiac arrest after breakfast when he was revived at home and rushed to the hospital, where he was put on ventilator.

Jogi is survived by his wife MLA Renu Jogi and son Amit Jogi, who took to Twitter to confirm his father’s death. “20-year-old young Chattisgarh is facing the loss today, like me,” he wrote.

A bureaucrat-turned politician, 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.

Jogi parted ways with the Congress in 2016 after he and his son got embroiled in a controversy over a by-election. Later, he quit the Congress and formed Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J).