Scindia loyalist's return to Congress a setback for Union Minister

The Congress, which has been trying to corner Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in his bastion -- the Gwalior-Chambal region in Madhya Pradesh, scored a trump on Wednesday as it succeeded in luring back his loyalist Baijnath Singh Yadav.

Among the Scindia camp supporters whose defection to the BJP in 2020 had brought down the Congress government, Yadav is considered to have a stronghold in Shivpuri.

In 2020, he was the district Congress President and his wife was a Congress Zila Panchayat member from Shivpuri.

A Shivpuri-based Congress leader told IANS that Yadav is considered close to Scindia and this was the reason why in 2020 he "sacrificed his political future" to follow him into the BJP. However, a rift between Yadav and Scindia came during the bypoll in Kolaras where the former wanted to contest, but Scindia backed Mahendra Yadav.

Sources said that the rift between the two widened further as Yadav did not support Mahendra Yadav.

Scindia had received several complaints against Yadav regarding his alleged anti-party activities. In the meantime, the Congress, which was striving hard to chip away the Scindia faction, offered Yadav a chance to rejoin the party, sources said.

"Kolaras Assembly has around 27,000 Yadav votes and 35,000 votes of Dhakad community. As the Congress was in search of a strong candidate from Kolaras, Yadav moved one step ahead to approach the state Congress leadership and wished to join the party again," the Shivpuri-based Congress leader claimed.

With the latest development, the Congress has also tried to convey a message that Scindia, who is considered a strong leader in Gwalior-Chambal region, failed to fulfill the promises he had made to his loyalists.

Sources have claimed that several other Scindia loyalists are in touch with the Congress leadership and willing to come back but the Congress is not giving much attention to them.

"At least five to six leaders, who were among the 22 MLAs who shifted to the BJP and toppled the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in 2020, are constantly approaching the Congress leadership, but Kamal Nath is completely against their induction," a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.

--IANS

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