The Maharaja’s new clothes: In MP polls, ‘karyakarta’ Jyotiraditya Scindia to the fore

However, Scindia has had to “readjust”, not the least because of his new party colours. While the royal demeanour had a place in the old-worldly Congress, there is little patience for it in the new BJP. In an interview with The Indian Express recently, Scindia insisted that “the BJP has always been home”.

When Scindia first crossed over to the BJP in 2020 – months after suffering an embarrassing loss from his Guna Lok Sabha seat – few expected him to “fit in”. (Express photo by Liz Mathew)

Observers say they could have not imagined the Scindia of old getting off the dais to talk to workers, ask personally if they had what they needed, such as voters’ list or even pen and paper, before exhorting them to ensure the party’s victory in Pichhore, a seat the BJP has not won in three decades.

Talking of the change, a local leader says: “People would always bow before him earlier… touch his feet or stand with folded hands. He would not even bother remembering their names.”

Scindia goes the distance

In fact, when Scindia first crossed over to the BJP in 2020 – months after suffering an embarrassing loss from his Guna Lok Sabha seat – few expected him to “fit in”.

Many recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s targeted attack on Scindia at a rally in 2014 in the region, saying: “Where is Rajmata Saheb (Scindia’s late grandmother and senior BJP leader Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia) and where is your MP (Scindia)? Her position was due to the love of the people… The less said about him, the better. I have never seen so much arrogance in anyone… He has the Congress disease.”

How far Scindia has come was apparent over the weekend, when Modi attended the 125th anniversary celebrations of The Scindia School, set up by the Gwalior royals. The PM claimed double association with Scindia, given the Gwalior royals’ contribution to Varanasi (Modi parliamentary constituency), and given that the latter was “Gujarat’s son-in-law”.

Sources said Scindia was advised right at the beginning that he would have to “shed his Maharaja image” in the BJP where “ideology came first”.

At the Pichhore booth worker meeting, the new-look Scindia batted for the BJP as much as he attacked the Congress, over an impassioned address lasting more than an hour. He said that Madhya Pradesh was in such a state before 2003 (when the BJP came to power) that “we did not know where the gutter was, and where the road started”. Praising Modi, he said: “If our PM can give 18 hours a day throughout the year, why can’t we give 25 days for Madhya Pradesh?”

Come polling day on November 17, the test for Jyotiraditya Scindia will be demonstrating his lasting value for the BJP. (Express photo by Liz Mathew)

Lastly, he exhorted the workers: “He (the PM) put the Indian flag on the moon. We should be able to plant the party flag in this constituency.”

Waving his arm energetically, Scindia added: “This is a jung (war), and you need energy to fight… Dam laga ke haisha (Put all your might in).”

Satish, an impressed party worker who shared only his first name, spoke about how Scindia had personally demonstrated how to interact with voters.

The bigger test ahead

But, these small victories apart, come polling day on November 17, the test for Scindia will be demonstrating his lasting value for the BJP. If the Congress is thirsting for revenge as his rebellion brought down its government in 2020, many in the BJP are resentful at being sidelined following his entry into the party. The BJP made him a Union minister, while 19 of the 25 Congress MLAs who crossed over with him were re-elected.

The ticket tussle for the coming elections has already seen four of them return to the Congress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Union Minister of Steel and Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia and others during a programme marking the celebration of 125th foundation day of the Scindia School, in Gwalior. (PTI)

Scindia insists he doesn’t expect anything, and is an “aam karyakarta (ordinary worker)”, who will do what the party asks of him. However, the talk is incessant of “plans for a bigger role” for him.

At least some backlash is expected on the ground due to Scindia’s 2020 move. A Gwalior resident, Gaurav Sharma, questions his “betrayal” – during his 18-plus years in the Congress, following in the footsteps of his father, Scindia won multiple elections and was close to the powers-that-be. “Scindia may have felt the BJP would be ‘safer’,” says Sharma, referring to the Enforcement Directorate and CBI cases against anti-BJP leaders.

The Scindia stronghold of Gwalior-Chambal has always favoured the Congress and voted overwhelmingly for it in 2018, amid expectation that Scindia would be the chief minister if the party won. But Kamal Nath was picked by the party to be the CM.

Pichhore is among the constituencies seen as the least likely to vote for the BJP in the region, having elected the Congress’s K P Singh Kakkaju since 1993. However, this time, Kakkaju has been shifted to Gwalior by the Congress.

Scindia starts with another disadvantage. His aunt and BJP leader Yashodhara Raje has announced she will stay away from the coming electoral battle, leaving him to shoulder the burden of winning the area for the BJP, against incumbency of nearly 20 years.

Raje, who won from Shivpuri in 1998, 2003, 2013 and 2018, and has cited health reasons for dropping out, is seen as having done well by her constituency. Shivpuri stands out in the region for its well-kept roads, a park around Vijayaraje’s statue, a dam project and the modernisation of the Shivpuri stadium, projects attributed to Raje.

Many contrast this to Gwalior, saying the seat that was the bastion of Madhavrao Scindia is stuck in time.

Raje’s absence is making many think of options beyond the BJP. “If anyone from the mahal (royal palace) was contesting, things would have been different for the BJP. The family has stood by us,” says Nafeez Khureshi, who runs a small business in town.

Tejnarayan Gupta, a resident of Shivpuri who is now a BJP supporter, vouches for the Scindia family too. “They spend money and get work done.”

But Farooq Pathan, a young entrepreneur in the construction sector, does not fully agree. There are roads, he says, “but no jobs, no new industry”. “Earlier, people used to vote for anyone who stood from the family. That is no longer the case.”

Muzafir Khan, a street vendor, is apprehensive about communal tensions flaring once the palace influence weans off. The presence of Raje as a minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government kept Shivpuri “peaceful”, Khan says, indicating that he already sees signs of what may come: “The administration has not provided my wife and my younger brother Aadhaar cards, despite repeated attempts.”

Raje’s decision coincides with her sister Vasundhara Raje’s sidelining by the BJP in Rajasthan, and nephew Scindia’s rise in the party. The two sides of the family, long in rival parties, don’t have the best of relations.

There was earlier talk that Scindia might replace Raje from Shivpuri. That has been laid to rest now with the BJP fielding Devendra Kumar Jain from the seat, and Narayan Singh Kushwaha from Gwalior South.

In Gwalior East though, the party is repeating Maya Singh, a relative of the Scindias.