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Journalism of Courage
Although he was not among the Union ministers who were fielded in the Madhya Pradesh polls, Jyotiraditya Scindia’s crucial responsibility and role in the BJP’s plans were clear from the onset of the campaigning in the state. The 52-year-old ‘Maharaja of Gwalior’ was entrusted the responsibility of his home turf, the Gwalior-Chambal region, comprising 34 seats. He delivered 18 to the BJP on Sunday, up from 7 in 2018.
Scindia was seated besides Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan at the latter’s house for the counting of results, along with fellow Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. The day ended with Scindia and Chouhan feeding each other laddoos. Tomar also had reason to celebrate, winning a tough contest in Dimani by a margin of 24,000 votes.
Clearly, Scindia stunned the Congress, which had expected to do better than its tally of 16. The party had won 26 seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region in 2018. Later, 16 of them followed Scindia out of the Congress, but the Congress had still held on. In the 16 bypolls that resulted in the region from these defections in 2020, the BJP had won 9 and the Congress 7.
The result cements Scindia’s importance in the BJP set-up. He is seen to enjoy the confidence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, but has had to fight for political space among the many stalwarts. In fact, many local BJP leaders crossed over to the Congress in the run-up to the elections, miffed at the rising profile of Scindia. However, the loyalists who switched over from Scindia’s camp to the Congress — Bodh Singh Bhagat, Samander Patel and Baijnath Yadav — all lost.
The Congress had entrusted former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh and his son Jaivardhan Singh with wresting the Gwalior-Chambal region.
Jaivardhan won in Raghogarh but Digvijaya’s brother Lakshman Singh lost from Chachoura. Other veteran Congress leaders such as Govind Singh, 72, the former Leader of Opposition and seven-time Congress MLA lost from Lahar by 12,397 votes.
But the offside of the victory for Scindia is that eight of his key loyalists lost the election. The 10 loyalists who won include Pradyuman Singh Tomar (Gwalior), water resources minister Tulsi Silavat (Sanwer, Indore), public health and family welfare minister Prabhuram Chaudhary (Sanchi, Raisen), revenue minister Govind Singh Rajput (Surkhi, Sagar), food minister Bisahulal Singh (Anuppur), environment minister Hardeep Singh Dang (Suwasra, Mandsaur).
State BJP Secretary Rajneesh Aggarwal said, “The Congress had no organisation on the ground. It did not have any real political issues to talk about. They spoke of farmer distress, but we managed to help the farmers out with our beneficiary schemes.”
A Scindia loyalist, upbeat over the results, said, “Everybody was expecting a washout, which did not happen. We expected to win more seats as some key loyalists lost, but we managed to improve the rally. Maharaj is the undisputed leader in Gwalior-Chambal…Only his men held on to their own.”
A Congress leader from Gwalior-Chambal, however, said it was not a “bad performance” in the region, and that big leaders such as MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra were defeated.
“We did this with a new set of leaders as the old leaders betrayed us and left. It takes time to build a new leadership,” he said.
Sitting MLAs who won include Brajendra Singh Yadav(Mungaoli, Ashok Nagar); Manoj Chaudhary (Hatpipliya, Dewas); Narayan Patel (Mandhata, Nimad); and Aidal Singh Kansana (Sumawali, Morena)
The Scindia camp leaders who lost are panchayat and rural development minister Mahendra Singh Sisodia (Bamori, Guna); industrial policy and investment promotion minister Rajvardhan Singh Dattigoan (Badnawar, Dhar); state PWD minister Suresh Dhakad (Pohari, Shivpuri); former minister of women and child development Imarti Devi (Dabra); state backward class department chairman Raghuraj Singh Kansana (Morena); and civil supplies corporation limited head Pradyuman Singh Lodhi (Malhara, Chhatarpur).
