Raipur, Sep 20 (PTI) Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) national president Renu Jogi on Tuesday alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had hatched a conspiracy to merge her party into it under "Operation Lotus", but the plan failed.

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The BJP denied the allegations of Jogi.

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Jogi claimed two MLAs of JCC (J)- Dharmjeet Singh and Pramod Sharma- attended a function of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Raipur on August 27 and met with senior BJP leaders.

She said Singh was expelled from the JCC (J) to save the existence of the party, founded by former chief minister Ajit Jogi.

“The statement of the BJP president (JP Nadda) in Patna on July 31 that 'all the regional parties of the country will vanish' reflects an undemocratic ideology wherein the ultimate aim is to forcibly establish 'one-party system' by crushing the regional pride and respect," Jogi told a press conference.

Like Jharkhand where similar attempts were made with JMM, in Bihar with Janata Dal (United) and Delhi with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a similar bid was made to destroy JCC (J) in Chhattisgarh under "operation lotus", she alleged.

The Kota MLA further claimed that JCC (J) got information from sources on September 19 that a conspiracy was being hatched to merge JCC (J) into BJP.

“We had discussed many times with our MLAs –Dharmjeet Singh and Pramod Sharma-- in this regard and had requested them not to fall in their (BJP's) trap. Despite that, the duo on August 27 attended the function of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Raipur without informing me. They met with senior BJP leaders,” Jogi claimed and added Singh was expelled to save the existence of the party.

".....Operation Lotus failed in Chhattisgarh," she said.

Opposition parties claim 'Operation Lotus' is the BJP's strategy to destabilise non-BJP governments by engineering a split or through other means. The BJP denies any such strategy.

Denying the allegation, senior BJP MLA Ajay Chandrakar took a dig at Renu Jogi and Amit Jogi, saying the saffron party does not need to run any kind of "operation" to (merge) a party with two members- mother and son.

Dharamjeet Singh, who represents the Lormi Assembly segment, was expelled from the party for six years for ignoring the interests of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities and acting against the principles laid by the founder of the party.

On Monday, he admitted he and Pramod Sharma had met with Shah but denied he wanted to join BJP.

"I went to the function as we were invited and people from different walks of life were also present there to listen to the home minister. I did not go there to join the BJP or to meet Shah," he had told reporters.

He also accused the party leadership of removing him to cover up their “malpractices”.

With the expulsion of Singh, the JCC (J) is now left with 2 MLAs in the 90-member House.

The ruling Congress has the highest number of 71 MLAs, BJP 14, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 2.

In the 2018 assembly, the Ajit Jogi-led party had won five seats but it lost two of them to Congress in the bypolls held later.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)