In December 2001, months after his father’s untimely death, Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the Congress.
On Tuesday, on his father’s birth anniversary, Scindia embarked on a new chapter in his political journey when he announced his resignation from the Congress. Suave, educated, untainted by corruption and boasting of both political lineage as well as a connection to the grassroots, Scindia has long been the modern face of Indian politics’ grand old party.
In his letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi,which was widely circulated on social media, Scindia wrote, “To reflect and realise the aspirations of my people and my workers, I believe it is best that I now look ahead at a fresh start.”
At 49, Scindia, a Harvard and Stanford University alumnus, was seen as one Congress’s pillars of strength. He was part of a close-knit group that included former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Murli Deora and Jitendra Prasad. A fiery orator, he often led Congress’s attack against political rivals in Parliament and was made the chief whip of the party in the 16th Lok Sabha.
The grandson of the last maharaja of Gwalior Jivajirao Scindia, Scindia joined electoral politics in 2001, after his father and Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia was killed in a plane crash. The young Scindia filed a nomination from his father’s constituency of Guna in Madhya Pradesh in 2002 and defeated his rival from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Desh Raj Singh, by a margin of 450,000 votes. Scindia would win four straight terms from Guna, but lost the seat in the 2019 general elections – a loss attributed by his loyalists to infighting within the Congress.
During the United Progressive Alliance government, he was appointed minister of state for communications and information technology in 2008. A year later, in the second UPA government, he was minister of state and given charge of the ministry of commerce and industry. On October 28, 2012, he became Union minister of state (independent charge) for power.
