New Delhi: By-elections in 24 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh are going to be the first test of political strength for Jyotiraditya Scindia after he joined the BJP deserting the Congress around three months ago. That’s the reason why Scindia is sparing no effort to ensure that his victory dreams materialise. He is, therefore, burning midnight oil to put in place a foolproof electoral strategy. Through video calls, Scindia keeps talking to various leaders at the ground level regarding what needs to be done for winning bypolls in all the 24 Assembly seats. Scindia alleges that the Congress is leaving no stone unturned to tarnish his image and for that matter trying to weaken him by means of rumours. He says that all this does not make any difference to him. His focus on 24 seats remains undistracted.
In fact, Scindia knows that his political future hinges on the electoral outcome in 24 seats. His political clout after leaving the Congress will be put to test in these results. Given the significance of these bypolls, Scindia is leaving nothing to chance. Apart from him, all the 22 MLAs who had switched over to BJP along with Scindia are also restless, as winning these seats is a challenging task for them. They cannot be oblivious to the fact that former MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath will also spare no effort to ensure Congress victory in these polls. It goes without saying that Kamal Nath must be looking at it as a much-needed opportunity to embarrass and politically weaken Scindia. He would be more than eager to grab this opportunity. It’s believed in political circles that the BJP may be worried because of several political decisions being deferred due to the ongoing corona crisis leading to party functionaries being crestfallen.
That the much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle was put on hold is telling on the morale of the BJP rank and file owing allegiance to Scindia. However, Jyotiraditya Scindia thinks contrary to this.
The corona-induced lockdown soon after the swearing-in of Shivraj Singh Chouhan posed a challenging situation for the state government as well as the BJP. Congress got a handle against the BJP in the form of what it called the state government’s abject failure to deal with the pandemic effectively. Shivraj Chouhan is, however, making all efforts to minimise the political damage by more effectively tackling the situation resulting from the corona crisis. The CM is understood to have his list of political appointments ready. Moreover, he will have an expanded Cabinet soon.
What is a foregone conclusion is that all legislators who defected to the BJP from the Congress will be given tickets. Similarly, those who were ministers will be given ministerial berth again if they win back. In all, 9-10 Scindia supporters might be given ministerial positions. The BJP top brass has left the electoral responsibility to Scindia and Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh. Scindia will be elected to Rajya Sabha. Winning most of the 24 seats is mandatory for Chouhan because only then his government will be stable in real sense of the term. Political circles believe that though the 22 Congress MLAs have formally joined the BJP, they are identified as Scindia faction leaders.
This is because they haven’t become “BJP wallas” to the core. The Congress isn’t leaving any chance to point it out, saying they are Congressmen in the BJP. Jyotiraditya Scindia has trashed such narrative, saying they are all BJP leaders to the core once they joined it. He says no amount of such propaganda of the Congress will work. Scindia has asserted he hasn’t joined BJP for any post, he wants to serve the people which wasn’t possible in the Congress. Scindia has said PM Modi’s work is being lauded the world over. The BJP will win the bypolls no matter what Kamal Nath does, Scindia added.