Bhopal: Fifty-two years after ‘Rajmata’ Vijaya Raje Scindia, a prominent member of the erstwhile Gwalior royal dynasty, quit the Congress and caused the party-led government in Madhya Pradesh to collapse, history appears to be repeating itself.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, the grandson of the late Vijaya Raje Scindia, quit Tuesday the Congress along with 22 MLAs, putting the 14-month-old Kamal Nath-led government in deep crisis.
“His (Jyotiraditya) grandmother Vijaya Raje, once a close confidant of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had started her political innings in 1957 from the Congress. However, she left the party in 1967. She toppled the DP Mishra-led Congress government in the state in July 1967,” an acquaintance of the Scindia family said.
“Now, her grandson Jyotiraditya has made a similar move, pushing the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh to the brink,” the person added.
After quitting the Congress, Vijaya Raje joined the Swatantra Party. After a few days, she joined the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (the precursor of BJP) and won Karera Assembly seat in 1967 and entered Madhya Pradesh politics, informed the person.
Another leader close to the Scindias said the trouble between Vijaya Raje and the then chief minister DP Mishra started when she went to him with a list of names, whom she wanted to be nominated as Congress candidates for the Lok Sabha and MP Assembly polls which were to be held simultaneously. However, Mishra made her wait for two hours, which left Rajmata fuming, informed the person.
“She made 36 MLAs, who were holed up at Usha Kiran Hotel in Gwalior, defect from the Congress. She propped up Govind Narayan Singh, who later became MP chief minister,” the person stated.
The muscle and money power that was part of the political drama played out in July 1967 is similar to what is happening now.
“The same drama is being played out in Madhya Pradesh after 52 years. Jyotiraditya has taken the centre stage in the political drama unfolding in MP where the Congress government now appears to be on a sticky wicket,” the acquaintance quipped.
Jyotiraditya, considered to be a close aide of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, parted way with the party Tuesday after 18 years of association.
Like Jyotiraditya, his grandmother, too, had started her political innings with the Congress and won two Lok Sabha elections from the family pocket borough of Guna Shivpuri in 1957 and 1962.
With Jyotiraditya joining the BJP now, the entire Scindia family is now part of the saffron party. His two aunts, Vasundhara Raje and Yashodhara Raje, are already in the BJP with the former having served as the Rajasthan chief minister for 10 years.
Jyotiraditya’s father Madhavrao Scindia had also started his political innings as an MP of the Jana Sangh in 1971, but later joined the Congress.
The Scindia family, which originally hails from Maharashtra, is among the most distinguished political dynasties in the country and Jyotiraditya’s decision has snapped its decades-long ties with the Congress.
According to those close to the Scindia family, it is going to be after 43 years, that the Scindias will be sailing in the same boat – the BJP.
In 1977, Madhavrao Scindia left the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. He fought the general elections from Guna Shivpuri as an Independent candidate in 1977 before joining Congress in 1980.
Jyotiraditya joined politics after the sudden death of his father in a plane crash in 2001. He was only 31 years old at that time. He contested his first Lok Sabha election also from Guna and won.
Meanwhile after Jyotiraditya’s resignation from the Congress, around 10,000 of its office-bearers from all levels have resigned from the party in Madhya Pradesh, a former leader said Wednesday. The Congress, however, refuted this claim and said the supporters of Jyotiraditya were creating pressure on other leaders to leave the party.
“About 10,000 office-bearers of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh- from state-level to block-level, including some district presidents, have resigned from the Congress since Tuesday morning owing their allegiance to Scindia ji,” former MP Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi, who also quit the party along with Scindia said. “More leaders will resign from the party soon,” he claimed.
The district presidents of Guna, Sagar, Ashok Nagar, Gwalior, Indore, Shivpuri and some other districts have resigned from the party, Chaturvedi, a staunch Scindia supporter, said.
Agencies
