BHOPAL: When Jyotiraditya Scindia lost the royal family bastion Guna in Madhya Pradesh to his protégé-turned-rival KP Yadav in 2019, it was largely attributed to his arrogance. Then, Scindia was an influential Congress leader and Yadav had just switched sides to join the BJP to emerge as a giant killer. Cut to 2024, Scindia is fighting to reclaim his lost glory on a BJP ticket while the Congress has taken a leaf out of the BJP’s book by fielding Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav, a former leader of the saffron party.
Guna has been synonymous with Gwalior’s erstwhile royal Scindia family and Scindia has won four times – in 2002, 2004, 2009 and 2014 – on Congress ticket.
According to party insiders, when Scindia’s candidature was announced on March 2, there was considerable unease among party workers as well as the dominant Yadav voters over the denial of ticket to sitting MP K P Yadav.
“The Yadavs are clearly siding with Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav. To complicate matters, Yadav is the son of former BJP MLA Rao Deshraj Singh Yadav, a sworn adversary of the Scindia family. This makes Yadav acceptable even to non-Yadav BJP voters,” said a senior BJP worker.
While Yadav voters are still opposed to Scindia, the other castes, including Lodhis, Kirars, Raghuvanshis, Vaishya, Brahmin, Kshatriyas, and tribals are said to be backing the Union minister.
Scindia has his work cut out. The scarcity of drinking water in many parts of the constituency, particularly in tribal-dominated areas, also remains a concern for the Scindia camp. Recently, a video went viral which showed Scindia’s wife being confronted by women raising their water woes.
Since his humiliating defeat in 2019, Scindia has been frequently crisscrossing the 18.83 lakh voters-strong constituency. He visited Guna many times after joining the BJP in March 2020 and also after becoming Union minister in the Narendra Modi government.
According to analysts, the unique combination of Modi’s image and the royal family’s goodwill may work in favour of Scindia.
Scindia has also got former BJP chief ministers Uma Bharti and Shivraj Singh Chouhan to campaign for him to ensure the support of Lodhi-Kirar castes to counter the opposition of Yadavs.