Former Chief minister of Chhattisgarh is on a ventilator

The former chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Ajit Jogi, who was admitted to a private hospital here after he suffered a cardiac arrest, fell into a coma, a senior doctor who attended him said on Sunday.

Jogi's neurological operation is "almost zero" and he is on fan support at Shree Narayana Hospital, where the leader of the 74-year-old Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) was admitted to the hospital on Saturday afternoon after he fell unconscious at his home here.

"His heart activity is fine at the moment. Medication has been controlling his blood pressure. However, after the respiratory arrest yesterday, there was a disturbance in the supply of oxygen to his brain, which could have caused damage to his brain. It's called hypoxia in medical terms," medical director Dr Sunil Khemka said in a bulletin.

"As of now, Jogi's neurological function is almost zero. Simply put, we can conclude he's fallen into a coma. He's on a ventilator. We're making every effort to improve his health, but the current condition is troubling," he said.

In the next 48 hours, how Jogi's body reacts to medicines will be evaluated, the official said, adding a team of eight specialist doctors will treat the chief.

A bureaucrat-turned-politician, Jogi, currently an MLA from Marwahi district, served as Chhattisgarh's first chief minister in the then Congress government from November 2000 to November 2003, after the state was created.

After he and his Amit Jogi got involved in a controversy over the suspected fixing of by-poll to Antagarh's seat in Kanker district in 2014, he parted ways with the Congress in 2016.

Afterwards, he founded his own JCC (J) team.