BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh might see Gwalior royal family’s first couple contesting from separate seats for the very first time in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.“We would like former Union minister and four-time MP from Guna seat Jyotiraditya Scindia, as well as his wife Priyadarshini Raje Scindia to contest separate seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region,” said party leaders.
On Sunday, Gwalior district Congress Committee even passed a resolution, with MP cabinet ministers Imarti Devi and Pradumn Singh Tomar, requesting the party to field Priyadarshini Raje Scindia from Gwalior seat, which the party has not won since 2007.
State Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi, said “it is for New Delhi to decide”. MP Congress Committee president and Chief Minister Kamal Nath agreed that Priyadarshini will be the best possible candidate for Gwalior.
A few weeks back, when Jyotiraditya Scindia was appointed Congress national general secretary in-charge for West Uttar Pradesh, the Guna district Congress unit had insisted with state bosses to field Priyadarshini from Guna, if Scindia settled for Gwalior.
Since then, Priyadarshini has attended a series of meeting of party workers in all assembly segments of Guna. But with Scindia decided on Guna, the Gwalior unit is insistent that she contest Gwalior. In 2014, then state BJP chief Narendra Singh Tomar, now Union minister, had won the seat.
8 of 18 elections won by Scindias
Of the 18 elections and by-elections to Gwalior Lok Sabha seat since 1952, members of Scindia family have triumphed eight times, including Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia on a Congress ticket in 1962, her son late Madhavrao Scindia in 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998, his BJP leader sister Yashodhara Raje Scindia in 2007 and 2009.