BHOPAL: Nearly three and half years after Jyotiraditya Scindia and loyalist Congress MLAs pulled down the 15-months-old Kamal Nath government, Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be on Scindia’s home turf Gwalior on Friday.
Priyanka who launched the grand old party’s campaign for the year-end assembly polls from Jabalpur on June 12, will address a mega rally at the Mela Ground in Gwalior, the city which is not only home to present union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and his erstwhile Gwalior royal family, but also the home city of union agriculture minister and recently appointed Madhya Pradesh BJP poll management committee head Narendra Singh Tomar as well as state’s home minister Narottam Mishra.
Before addressing the rally at the Mela Ground, the Congress national general secretary will pay tributes at the Samadhi of Rani Lakshmibai, the great warrior queen of Jhansi and one of the spearheads of the 1857 First War of Indian Freedom.
Importantly, a series of Congress leaders, spanning from the state leaders to the party’s MP and general secretary in-charge (communications) Jairam Ramesh, have in the past targeted the Scindias over “their friendship with the British and betrayal of the 19th century Queen of Jhansi.” Just two and half months back Ramesh had quoted famous Hindi poet Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s poem, which praises the Rani of Jhansi and also mentions Gwalior’s ruling Scindia family as allies of the British.
Interestingly, the Queen of Jhansi barbs by a series of Congress leaders on Scindia and his family, started after Scindia along with loyalists pulled down the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh in March 2020. Prior to it, the same barbs were used at Scindia and his family by multiple BJP leaders, including Ram Temple Movement leader and ex-MP minister Jaibhan Singh Pavaiya and former BJP state president Prabhat Jha. Political watchers believe that Priyanka’s visit to the Rani Lakshmibai’s Samadhi before the public rally on Friday will symbolically target Scindia and his family.
Priyanka’s Gwalior rally on Friday assumes particular significance, as Gwalior is the central point of the vast Gwalior-Chambal region that houses 34 seats, which were swept by the Congress in the 2018 assembly polls (largely on Scindia’s popularity) as the party won 26 seats followed by BJP with just seven and BSP with a solitary seat.
In the 2013 polls, the story in that region was diametrically opposite, as the BJP had won 28 seats, while the Congress could manage just four seats and the BSP ended up with two seats.
After Scindia’s departure from the Congress, the grand old party couldn’t fare very well in the 2020 by-polls to 26 assembly seats, most of which were in the Gwalior-Chambal region.
But in July 2022, the Congress stunned BJP, by winning both the Gwalior and Morena mayoral polls after decades. Since then the father-son duo of former CM Digvijaya Singh and MLA son Jaivardhan Singh, have been working to rebuild the party further in that region.
Over the last three months, Scindia and the BJP camp have seen at least three big switchovers to the Congress. While Scindia loyalists Baijnath Singh Yadav and Rakesh Gupta (both from Shivpuri district) have returned to Congress fold, prior to it, Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav, the son of former BJP MLA Rao Deshraj Singh Yadav from Ashok Nagar district had joined the Congress.
Not only is Priyanka likely to target Scindia (once close to her family) at Friday’s rally in the Mela Ground, but also raise the issue of the alleged irregularities in the MP Patwari Recruitment Exam, particularly as the Congress has been targeting the BJP over seven out of the ten toppers of the March-April exam, having taken the exam at a centre in BJP MLA Sanjeev Singh Kushwah’s management and engineering college in Gwalior only.
As per key sources in MP Congress, the three national leaders, Rahul Gandhi, national president Mallikarjun Kharge and national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will spearhead the party's campaign in different regions of the poll-bound central Indian state.
While Rahul may focus on tribal areas, particularly Mahakoshal, Malwa-Nimar and Vindhya regions, starting with an August 8 visit to Shahdol district (which was visited by PM Modi on July 1), Kharge may tour the Dalit-dominated rural areas, particularly Bundelkhand region. Kharge is likely to address a mega rally in the Sagar district. Priyanka on the other hand is likely to focus on other regions, particularly the urban regions, including big cities.
Priyanka’s rally in Gwalior happens 20 days after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann had launched AAP’s MP poll campaign from the same Gwalior city with an impressive rally. AAP is particularly believed to be eyeing the 20% Dalit vote in the region, which hitherto has largely backed the Congress and the BSP.
It, however, remains to be seen that after the successful union of the opposition under the INDIA banner in Bengaluru, AAP still goes ahead with plans to contest on all 230 seats of MP alone or makes efforts for seats sharing with the Congress.