Marwahi (Chattisgarh): Taking on Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in his home turf in Marwahi, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Nov 24) came down heavily on the Congress and said it was because of CMs like Jogi that the country was lagging behind and asked why it had not created the tribal state despite being in power at the Centre for 50 years.

Advani said that during campaigning in the four states going to polls on December 1, he had found strong anger and resentment among the people against Jogi, which needed to be looked into by both the Chief Minister himself as also the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

He said allegations against former Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo and six other federal Ministers had backfired on the Congress.

"Not only the Judeo episode, but even the allegations against six Ministers were proving to be costly for the Congress and now they have boomeranged on it," he said.

He likened the condition in Chattisgarh to the emergency period and claimed that instead of affection towards Jogi the people "fear" him and "feel terrorised".

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had fielded its leader of Opposition Nand Kumar Sai against Jogi, as it wanted to defeat him in his home constituency, Advani said, adding that the party did not even want Jogi as leader of Opposition in Chattisgarh.

PTI