After facing defeat in the recently concluded assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, another setback had come for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Ajit Jogi’s party formally announcing today to desist the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

With Jogi’s party Chhattisgarh Janta Congress (CJC) out of fray, the Lok Sabha election in the state would be a bipolar contest between the Congress and the BJP. The CJC that came into being in 2016 after Ajit Jogi quit Congress a year ago could have played spoilsport for Congress in atleast four of the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in Chhattisgarh.

In the November assembly polls, CJC helped the BJP in atleast 10 seats by dividing Congress’ votes. As a result, BJP could retain 15 seats in the state that it ruled for 15 years. Had CJC not been in the fight, the BJP’s tally would have confined within five seats, political analysts had said.

“The parliamentary board and the core committee today unanimously passed a resolution not to field candidate in any of the 11 constituencies,” CJC spokesperson Sanjeev Agrawal said. As an ally, the CJC would support the BSP that would contest the polls in all the constituencies, he added.

The BJP managers were eyeing CJC’s advantage in four constituencies as the party had been desperate to retain the position given the state polls debacle. Of the 11 constituencies, BJP had 10 in its kitty while Congress had only one seat. Now Congress bagging 68 assembly seats of the 90 in Chhattisgarh, the ruling party had been hopeful to increase the tally in the Lok Sabha.

Ajit Jogi had announced that he would himself contest the general election.