Ignoring the home ministry's warning of the last week, former Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Ajit Jogi is trying to bring activists backing the banned CPI(Maoist) on one platform by organising a conference in Delhi.

Taking further Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh's campaign that police action can never solve the Maoist issue, Jogi wants the leaders of the tribal areas and the pro-Maoist intellectuals and NGOs to attend the conference to prepare a charter of demands of the tribals that the government should meet and involve Maoists activists in the tribal areas in meeting these demands.

Jogi, himself a tribal, recently shifted his base from Raipur to Delhi and wants to gain relevance in the capital with the proposed conference. He was once the Congress face in Delhi as the party's spokesman but lost prominence after losing Chhattisgarh to the BJP and his activities too became limited because of an accident that made him confined to a wheelchair for life time.

He has requested Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi to inaugurate the conference, pointing out that the Maoists do resort to violence but they are also doing good work in remote areas that the government failed to perform.

A clever guy, Jogi has not fixed any date as yet for the conference pending Rahul Gandhi's consent to inaugurate it as he thinks such a consent will give a legitimacy to his effort in the Congress and not bring him in any clash with Home Minister P Chidambaram. Pending Gandhi's consent, he is keeping his plans of holding the conference under wraps as sources close to him say he may even drop it if he gets a negative response.

All this comes days after the home ministry said anybody supporting the Maoists would be booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act with jail for 10 years.