New Delhi Mar 15 : It was akin to a ‘quake’ and when it came, it was soon clear that neither the Congress high command nor its leadership in MP had any inkling of it despite several lesser markers registering on the political Richter Scale over last seven months. Anuraag Singh charts the discomfort within the Congress and the lack of inner-party dialogue that Jyotiraditya Scindia’s exit from the party has once again brought to fore
The feints and the shadow boxing had all been there for longas were the cloak and dagger games. Over the last 15 months that the Congress has helmed Madhya Pradesh, warnings of an impending political catastrophe were always there for all to see. Yet, the individual egos in play and ambitions in conflict were so intense that it had seemed insurmountable and irreconcilable and, perhaps, the inevitable was forecast, most interestingly by rivals BJP. Finally, a single peg in the party coming unstuck left the Kamal Nath led Congress tottering on May 10.
As political pundits tried to unravel the mystery behind the suddenness of the ‘political earthquake,’ one thing they appeared to be certain of: That the Maharaja of Gwalior had, by his action and inaction, given ample hints of what was in the offing in the months ahead. Turn back the clock to August 6, 2019. Within hours of Parliament approving the Bill for bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories and abrogation of special status given to the state under Article 370 of the Constitution, Scindia had pointedly ignored the Congress line and protests to tweet a riposte in support of the Centre’s stand, upsetting his party
Few would have then thought that his words then, carried a hint of a rebellion which should not be dismissed. The probing move to the March 10 sequel had come as late as on March 3-4 with a midnight drama at Manesar in Haryana, when state BJP leaders allegedly whisked away ten Congress and allied legislators. Unfortunately for them, the plan to wean the legislators away had come unstuck by March 7 and the majority of the ‘abducted’ MLAs returned home.
That had calmed the Congress nerves, but the actual sledgehammer blow came even quickly — just 36 hours later on March 9 noon — when 19 Congress legislators, all Scindia loyalists, suddenly went missing. That a well-laid plan was being executed was clear when they were found to have shed their personal security and switched off their mobile phones. Hours later, they surfaced at a sprawling resort in Karnataka capital Bengaluru — the place, where four of their colleagues had already been taken to on March 4.
The next move was the big one and deftly executed. As the country revelled in Holi colours, Congress stalwart Jyotiraditya Scindia delivered the painful blow to Sonia Gandhi and Co, resigning from the primary membership of the party and ending an18-year old association with the Grand Old Party, saying he wished for a ‘new beginning’. As the Congress bandwagon in Delhi and Bhopal reeled from its impact, Scindia walked into the BJP headquarters in New Delhi to a warm welcome from party chief J P Nadda and was straightaway nominated as the saffron party’s first preference candidate for the Rajya Sabha from MP.
In hindsight, leaders now ascribe the fallout to ‘silo-politics,’ which has so marked Madhya Pradesh Congress functioning. With obvious camps of Chief Minister Kamal Nath, former CM Digvijaya Singh and Scindia working often at cross-purposes, the discomfort within the party had unsettled its functioning. Leaders from the Gwalior-Chambal region, avowedly close to Scindia, say the Maharaja had started feeling insecure about his future ever since his unexpected and unprecedented Lok Sabha poll defeat by 1.25 lakh votes at the hands of his former lieutenant and BJP candidate Dr KP Yadav, that too in his pocket borough of Guna-Shivpuri. Scindia had been undefeated till then; ever since he made his political debut in 2002.
“Since the May 2019 results, he was so hurt and downbeat that he needed support but failed to get it from within the party, which left him wondering whether he had any future in the Congress. There remained the formidable challenge of PM Narendra Modi’s popularity wave, which could again nullify his efforts. Was there an alternative? He went by the dictum, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’,” said a senior Congress leader of Bundelkhand region. Former CM Digvijaya Singh, who has long been seen as Scindia’s foe within the Congress camp wholly agreed. “Since losing the Lok Sabha polls, Scindiaji was upset — not with the party, but with himself. From the information I have, he was in contact with senior national BJP leadership, including PM Narendra Modi and then BJP national president and home minister Amit Shah,” claimed Singh.
The resort at Devanahalli on the outskirts of Bengaluru where rebel MLAs from MP were staying | PTI
“Both Zafar Islam and Shubhangini Raje Gaikwad became the bridge between the top BJP leadership and Jyotiraditya Scindia in the run-up to his exit from the Congress,” said MP-based political analyst Chandrabhan Singh Bhaduaria, who has good contacts in Vadodara also. The week preceding Scindia’s surprise exit on March 10 from the Congress is believed to have seen hectic parleys between Zafar and also his in-laws’ family in Baroda. On Holi, it was Islam who accompanied Scindia to his meeting with Amit Shah and later PM Modi, which is believed to have sealed the deal.
(PTI)
