SCINDIA'S SAFFRON GAMBLE

HIS AMBITIONS THWARTED BY THE CONGRESS OLD GUARD, THE GWALIOR ROYAL BETS ON A NEW POLITICAL FUTURE WITH THE BJP

- Kaushik Deka, Rahul Noronha and Uday Mahurkar

On March 10, his father Madhavrao Scindia’s 75th birth anniversary, Jyotiraditya Scindia posted on Twitter a letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, announcing his resignation from the party he had been associated with for 18 years. While his frustration at being denied the post of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief in Madhya Pradesh and receiving no assurance of a Rajya Sabha berth may be the immediate trigger behind Scindia jumping ship to the BJP, the Gwalior royal’s disenchantment with the Congress had begun in 2018, in the run-up to the MP assembly election.

Sources say Scindia wanted to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate or be made PCC chief, but the Congress central leadership—then president Rahul Gandhi and mother Sonia—remained non-committal. Six months before the election, the Congress made Kamal Nath—whose relations with Scindia are considered frosty at best—the PCC chief in MP.

As a consolation, Scindia was made chairman of the party’s campaign committee, keeping him hopeful of being in contention for the top post. “When the high command decided to appoint a new PCC chief for MP ahead of the assembly poll, Scindia was not ready to take up the challenge, as he felt it was too late to make preparations. Nath took up the challenge and was rewarded,” says a Congress Rajya Sabha MP, on condition of anonymity.

CORNERED, SIDELINED

For Scindia, Rahul’s decision to make Nath the chief minister came as a blow. He felt betrayed not only because he had always stood by Rahul but also because the Congress’s success in the Gwalior-Chambal region, which he represents, was instrumental in the party coming to power in MP after a gap of 15 years. Of the 34 seats in the GwaliorChambal region, the Congress won 26.