Scindia joins BJP as MP govt totters, says Congress living in denial

Gets Rajya Sabha candidate ticket from Madhya Pradesh

Long-time Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia crossed over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, leaving the Madhya Pradesh government tottering and both parties scrambling to send their legislators far away from the state capital.

Amid reports that he will be the BJP's nominee from the state for the Rajya Sabha, and speculation that he could join the Union Cabinet in the impending reshuffle after the Rajya Sabha polls on March 26 and the  end of the Parliament session on April 3, Scindia said he was “pained” at not being able to serve people and he described the Congress as a party living in denial.

On reports that Scindia tried to meet him but was denied an appointment, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, “He is the only chap in Congress who could walk into my house anytime.” Gandhi also retweeted a tweet of his from December 13, 2018, when he had brokered a peace between Kamal Nath and Scindia over the question of the post of the chief minister in MP. “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time – Leo Tolstoy,” Gandhi had tweeted along with a photograph of his with Nath and Scindia.

Parties herd MLAs to resorts in ‘friendly states’

While MP's ruling Congress, pushed to the brink of collapse after the resignation of 22 legislators close to Scindia, herded about 90 of its legislators to resorts near Jaipur, the state's opposition BJP sent its MLAs to a luxury hotel in Gurugram. And 19 of those who resigned and whose letters were taken to the Speaker by the BJP are secluded in a hotel in Bengaluru.

As the number crunching intensified and resort politics played out in ‘friendly states’ — Rajasthan is ruled by the Congress and Haryana and Karnataka by the BJP — Scindia formally joined the BJP in the presence of party president J P Nadda and said the country's “future was fully secure in the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

52 years on, another Scindia's Cong exit puts MP govt in crisis

Fifty-two years after ‘Rajmata’ Vijaya Raje Scindia, a prominent member of the Gwalior royal dynasty, quit the Congress and caused the party- led government in MP to collapse, history appeared to be repeating itself. Scindia, 49, belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior. While his father Madhavrao Scindia won his first Lok Sabha polls in 1971 on a Jana Sangh ticket but joined the Congress in 1980, his grandmother Vijaya Raje Scindia was one of the founder members of the BJP and his aunts Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Vasundhara Raje Scindia are members of the BJP. Madhavrao quit the Congress in 1996 after he had differences with then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao when the hawala episode broke out and he was investigated. Madhavrao formed a party but returned to the Congress later.

Calling MP a piece of his heart (dil ka bhag), Scindia said his dream for the state had been shattered in the last 18 months — when the Congress won the assembly elections and Kamal Nath became CM. The former Union minister and four-time Congress MP, known to be close to Rahul Gandhi, said the party was “not what it used to be”.

His resignation from the Congress along with MLAs "loyal" to him on Tuesday has put a big question mark over the future of the Kamal Nath-led government, which came to power with a wafer-thin majority in the 230-member assembly. The effective strength is now 228. It also has the support of four independents, two BSP legislators and one SP MLA, but some may now switch sides to the BJP.

If the resignations of the 22 MLAs are accepted, the strength of the assembly will fall to 206. The Congress, on its own, will then be left with 92 seats while the BJP has 107 seats with the magic number for a majority being 104.

While several Congress leaders took to social media to criticised Scindia, senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Anand Sharma said they were shocked at the development, and said Scindia’s ideological commitment to Congress values was not in question.

Congress confident of winning floor test

The Congress expressed confidence it would win a trust vote in the assembly. “We have 95 MLAs here (at the Bhopal airport). Independent MLAs and BSP and SP legislators are also supporting us,” state minister Priyavrat Singh said in Bhopal before taking off for Jaipur.

“We will prove our majority,” senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said. He said 13 of the 22 rebel MLAs in the state have given an assurance that “they were not leaving”. “We did not anticipate that Scindia will quit the Congress... that was a mistake,” Singh said. Scindia, Singh said, could have been a Congress nominee to the Rajya Sabha but “only Modi-Shah” can give a Cabinet post to the “over-ambitious” leader. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, who was at the airport in Jaipur to receive his party's MLAs, accused the BJP of “shamelessly” indulging in "horse-trading".

As many as 17 out of 19 Scindia loyalist MLAs posted videos expressing their solidarity with Scindia. Imarti Devi said, “We are happy Scindiaji has taken this decision. I will always stay with him, even if I had to jump in a well.” However, sources said there were tensions also within the BJP. Prabhat Jha, who was to be sent to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP, is said to be unhappy now that he could risk losing his nomination. The Budget session of the MP Assembly will begin on March 16.