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Journalism of Courage
The magic trick had Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in splits. At a recent function in Gwalior, a magician, Durga Prasad Bakna, set a bulb on Madhya Pradesh Energy Minister and Scindia loyalist Pradhuman Singh Tomar’s head. As the bulb lit up, Scindia burst out in laughter along with others.
The event might have come as a respite for Scindia, the 52-year-old scion of the erstwhile Gwalior royal family, who has been facing intense pressure from the principal Opposition Congress, which has gone all out to corner him in the Gwalior-Chambal belt, his home turf, in the run-up to the Assembly polls slated for this year-end.
Led by Kamal Nath, the Congress hopes to exact revenge from Scindia for his rebellion in March 2000, which cost the party its government after a tenure of just 15 months. Scindia had then led a group of his loyalist MLAs to the BJP, which had resulted in the collapse of the Kamal Nath government. After having been out of power for 15 years, the Congress had formed the government after managing to get the better of the BJP in the 2018 Assembly polls by a wafer-thin margin.
With the BJP government led by four-time CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan facing “anti-incumbency” and the Congress mounting attempts for a comeback, Madhya Pradesh politics is heating up ahead of the upcoming elections.
Over the last few months, three BJP leaders, including two Scindia loyalists, have quit the party and returned to the Congress.
Joining the Congress in March, BJP leader Yadvendra Singh Yadav took potshots at Scindia. On June 14, a BJP leader from Shivpuri, Baijnath Singh Yadav, cut his ties with Scindia and took out a 700-car rally to Bhopal to join the Congress fold. Former BJP Shivpuri district vice-president and Scindia loyalist Rakesh Kumar Gupta followed suit on June 26, as he also took out a massive car rally to return to the Congress.
Along with Baijnath and Gupta hundreds of their supporters returned to the Congress, who held various posts at the local district and panchayat level.
Although Baijnath and Gupta have claimed that they want to strengthen the Congress and that they have not returned to the party to seek tickets for the polls, even the Congress camp concedes that their move could be attributed to their hopes of getting the party tickets.
Baijnath told The Indian Express, “I was feeling suffocated in the BJP. I left it because I was not feeling respected. The BJP leaders did not behave with me properly. So I had no choice but to leave. Honestly speaking, I don’t know if Scindia is weak in the Gwalior-Chambal belt. We will get to know in two months.”
Gupta echoed similar views. “We left Congress with Scindia and thought we would get some respect. But that was not the case. I met him in March and told him I don’t feel like staying in the party. He asked me to give it time and adjust. We never had that big conversation he promised me. I simply left. He used to attend events where he tried to accommodate BJP leaders and forgot about us,” Gupta told The Indian Express.
Senior Congress leader and ex-CM Digvijaya Singh and his son Jaivardhan Singh, former minister, have been at the forefront of driving a wedge between the Scindia group and the BJP’s entrenched camp, even as former state Congress chief Arun Yadav has been reaching out to Yadav leaders in the Bundelkhand region who have fallen out with Scindia.
When asked about the influx of the Scindia camp’s leaders and their supporters to the Congress, Digvijaya said, “They were Congress people at their core. Scindia ji had invited them and took them to the BJP. They are feeling that Scindia doesn’t have the same impact that he used to have in Congress. So everyone is returning.”
Senior Congress leaders are also trying to ensure that they don’t repeat the same “mistake” that the BJP had made by inducting dissident leaders and then creating their rivalries with its veterans. Said a Congress leader, “The BJP infighting is because of tension between former Congress leaders and BJP veterans. They are unable to accommodate them. Kamal Nath has not promised tickets to anyone who left BJP and joined Congress. We need to make our calculations very carefully and not create problems for us in the future.”
The Gwalior-Chambal region comprising Morena, Gwalior, Bhind, Shivpuri, Sheopur, Datia, Ashok Nagar, and Guna districts accounts for 34 of the state’s total 230 Assembly seats. During his stint in the Congress, Scindia used to called the shots in this entire region and took all the major party decisions including the ticket distribution. In the 2018 polls, when Scindia spearheaded the Congress’s campaign in the region, the party had won 26 of 34 seats.
However, since joining the BJP with his supporters in March 2020, Scindia has found himself jockeying for political space with state BJP heavyweights like Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Home Minister Narottam Mishra, who hail from the same region. State BJP president V D Sharma represents the Khajuraho constituency, although even he is closely associated with Morena.
Scindia has also continued to grapple with infighting in the BJP that has been raging between his supporters and the party’s old-timers, which may undermine its poll prospects in the region. He has also been at the receiving end of attacks by some BJP leaders. BJP MP K P Yadav had defeated Scindia (then Congress leader) from Guna, a pocket borough of the Scindia family, is the 2018 Lok Sabha election. Since Scindia’s switch to the BJP, Yadav, has been voicing his grievances over not being invited to various events organised by the former’s supporters in his constituency.
Recently, BJP leader and ex-MLA Arun Bhimawad called Scindia names while recounting how the Kamal Nath government fell.
While Scindia was inducted into the Narendra Modi ministry and sent to the Rajya Sabha, several of his supporters have fretted over not being “properly accommodated” in the BJP dispensation in the state. To add fuel to the fire, former rivals who fought for years have now become part of the same party, finding themselves competing for election tickets on the same side.
A Scindia-affiliated leader said, “Actually, those who joined the BJP did not come to the party but came with Scindia. They have no political connection with the BJP. In the last three years, Maharaj (Scindia) established himself in BJP leadership. BJP leaders are not able to adjust themselves in this new equation.”
He said, “Scindia supporters have their political ambitions. They wanted to become MLAs. There is a long line of BJP leaders. So they are unable to adjust there.”
Another Scindia loyalist said communication had broken down with those who left. “There is no dialogue so far. Who will explain to them. It has to be BJP to do it. But even BJP leaders don’t like Scindia. Maharaj became mantri, he made his own supporters mantri (in the Chouhan Cabinet), he even adjusted many leaders. So there is no point,” he said, adding that there was however not any panic in the Scindia group over those who left. “We are not seeing it as a big impact. The BJP doesn’t get impacted over the coming and going of leaders. Maharaj may feel uneasy with this.”
