Scindia dines with tribals ahead of Lok Sabha bypoll

Ahead of Shahdol Lok Sabha bypoll, Congress chief whip in Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia tried his hands not only at roasting chapati and having meals with tribals, but also matched steps with them in their traditional dance while campaigning for party nominee Himadri Singh.
Scindia and Congress' Rajya Sabha member Vivek Tankha, are campaigning for the by-poll in the tribal seat since yesterday.
"I enjoyed a lot interacting with them and I always do so whenever I get such an opportunity," he told PTI from Madwahi village.
The Congress leader spent the night at the residence of a tribal -- Kusham Singh Gond -- where he tried roasting a 'chapati' and had dinner with the villagers like a commoner.

Taking part in the traditional Shaila dance, he sported their traditional Mandar (Dholak) and tried his best to match steps with them in a formation.
Earlier too, Scindia had food with poor people in his constituency Guna.

The Congress leader, who is popularly known as "Maharaja" due to his royal lineage of the erstwhile Gwalior kingdom, is leaving no stone unturned these days to change this image by coming close to the common man in Madhya Pradesh.
"Though the ruling BJP is making tall claims about development, the real situation is quite different at the ground level. People feel cheated on the issue of power, water, land lease and rampant corruption," Scindia alleged.

While Congress has fielded Himadri Singh, daughter of former Union Minister Dalbir Singh and ex-MP Rajesh Nandini Singh from Shahdol Lok Sabha seat, the BJP has nominated senior minister in Shivraj Singh Chouhan's Cabinet and tribal leader Gyan Singh from the reserve seat.
The bypoll, which was necessitated due to death of BJP MP Dalpat Singh Paraste, is scheduled to take place on November 19. Counting of votes will be on November 22.
BJP's Paraste had wrested the seat from Congress's Rajesh Nandini Singh by a margin of over 2.14 lakh votes in 2014.
Gyan Singh, the BJP candidate for the bypoll, had won the seat twice in 1996 and 1998. BJP is vigorously campaigning in the constituency and is taking no chances given that it had failed to retain Ratlam-Jhabua Lok Sabha seat in the 2015 bypolls.