Ever since Jyotiraditya Scindia along with 22 MLAs loyal to him shifted to the BJP and toppled the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in March 2020, the Union Minister has been facing the wrath of his former party colleagues. Scindia has also faced resentment from his former party cadres for his ability to survive in politics.
He was called ‘traitor’, ‘bikau’ and some other unsavoury things by the top leadership of the Congress. Some even said that Scindia was feeling “suffocated” in the BJP as he could not take decisions on his own as he used to do in the Congress.
His leadership came into question last year after the BJP lost the mayoral seat from his bastion Gwalior, after several decades of being in power. One after another, his loyalists started going back to the Congress for their own political survival and in the last couple of months over a dozen of them have gone back to the grand old party.
Sources said the Congress, which had furiously attacked Scindia when he left, welcomed his loyalists back into the party, in a bid to create a perception that the Union Minister has lost his dominance in the Gwalior-Chambal region.
However, people associated with him counter the Congress’ allegation saying the grand old party has always believed in individual leadership, which is totally opposite to the culture in the BJP.
“The Congress leadership is worried about Jyotiraditya Scindia because he knows their tactics and has exposed them. Factionalism and individualism is very much a part of the Congress,” said Pankaj Chaturvedi, a BJP spokesperson and a Scindia supporter.
While the BJP has fielded several heavyweights, especially Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Prahlad Patel besides national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya for the state Assembly election, there is a buzz that Scindia may also contest the elections in Madhya Pradesh.
However, Pankaj Chaturvedi ruled this out saying the BJP leadership has fielded the bigwigs to create a balance in the state party unit, and if Scindia contests the Assembly election, it might go against the party’s plans.
“Although, no one knows what the central leadership decides, there is a very rare chance that Scindia would contest the Assembly elections,” he said.
Sources claim that Scindia has been witness to the politics of individualism for years in his previous political party – Congress, which is the total opposite of the RSS-BJP ideology and he is gradually establishing himself according to the culture in the new party.
“He is meeting party leaders and taking all steps in the direction of the central BJP leadership. Scindia is trying to present himself as a common man. And to say that Scindia has lost his political ground and is feeling suffocated in the BJP would be wrong because big politicians take each step after a lot of consideration. Significantly, he has been assigned a specific role in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections,” said a senior journalist.
The Gwalior-Chambal region was an important factor in bringing the Congress back to power in 2018 after a gap of 15 years. The party won 26 of the 34 seats and a lot of credit for this goes to Scindia. And now, the BJP will utilise his leadership to win the maximum number of seats in this region.
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