The well-guarded moves that preceded Jyotiraditya Scindia’s exit from the Congress fold have raised expectations of Scindia joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is expected to announce its list of Rajya Sabha candidates today.
Those aware of Tuesday’s developments say former party president and Union home minister Amit Shah has played a key role in the matter.
Scindia is yet to make a formal announcement as far as his future plans.
It was Shah who first met Scindia on Tuesday and later accompanied him to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.
This has been seen by many as a strong indication that the former Congress leader is poised to enter the BJP. According to one state functionary of BJP, the royal family of Baroda played a role in initiating dialogue between Shah and Scindia.
A senior party functionary said that if Scindia joined the BJP, it would help the party reclaim Madhya Pradesh — a bastion that it had lost in the 2018 state Assembly poll after being in power for three consecutive terms – and would also signal the emergence of new leadership in the state.
“He is a young, dynamic leader who has the experience of being in charge at the state as well at the Centre. Right now there are senior leaders such as Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Narendra Tomar, but the party has to have younger leaders to take the party further,” said the functionary quoted above.
A second functionary said Scindia joining the BJP would help the party strengthen its position in the Gwalior-Chambal region of the state, which is considered a pocket borough for the Scindias, formerly the royal family of Gwalior. Thirty-four seats in the 230-member state legislature are from this region.
In the last Assembly election, Congress had an edge over the BJP after winning 75% seats in the region, while the BJP’s tally went down from 18 in 2013 to seven in 2018.
BJP has also redoubled its efforts in the region, which is the hotbed of caste politics.
It was here that most protests against dilution of the scheduled caste/ scheduled tribe (SC/ST) prevention act were seen.
The party has been working on social engineering to expand its vote bank and has been wooing the SC and ST communities in the region. According to people aware of the developments, even as speculation surrounded the Scindia scion’s decision to leave Congress, a host of state leaders were unsure whether he would join the BJP formally or float his own party.
“The negotiations were limited to Shah and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan. On Monday, this issue was also discussed with BJP president JP Nadda when Shah met him,” said the second functionary.
Following a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Shah, Scindia announced his resignation from the Congress.
There is no word on what transpired at the meetings Scindia held with Shah and Modi.
“The BJP had been closely watching the developments in unfold in the state, but did not make any move to topple the Kamal Nath government. Only when it became clear that intra party disagreement which was evident in the form of open rebellion by MLAs made it untenable for the Congress government to continue, did the BJP take proactive steps. Many MLAs had reached out to the BJP, dismayed by their party’s leadership,” said a state functionary who is aware of the details.
