Will BJP field Scindia in MP Assembly elections?

Bhopal: Political circles in Madhya Pradesh are abuzz with speculation as to whether Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who jumped ship to the BJP from the Congress in March 2020, will contest the Assembly elections scheduled on November 17.

The buzz grew stronger after the BJP fielded several heavyweights in its second list for the Assembly polls, including three Union ministers -- Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste -- along with the party's national General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya.

With this, the BJP has opened the race for the Chief Minister’s post, if the party retains power in Madhya Pradesh.

The possibility over Scindia's candidature for the Assembly elections gained further momentum after his aunt and state minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia announced that she would not contest the November 17 polls.

Her decision gave rise to the buzz that she might have vacated the Shivpuri Assembly seat for her nephew. Importantly, the BJP has not declared its candidate for Shivpuri yet.

According to political observers, given that Scindia's supporters always wanted to project him as the next Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, there is a strong possibility that he would contest the elections.

“If the BJP retains power, all the heavyweights who win the elections will push themselves for the CM's post. If Scindia doesn't contest the elections, he would be out of that race. Therefore, Scindia might contest the polls,” a political observer said.

The political observers also feel that the contest between the BJP and the Congress will be very close and the saffron party will try to win all its strong seats and therefore it would field the strongest candidates.

“Tomar has already been fielded despite having extra responsibility for the elections. So the BJP might not give special privilege to Scindia, who also hails from the same region. Secondly, with the combination of Scindia and Tomar, the BJP will try to win maximum seats in the Gwalior-Chambal region,” a political observer said.

Fielding Scindia as a candidate might also be BJP’s plan to bring him in front to counter the strategy of the opposition led by two veteran Congress leaders - Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh.

More importantly, Scindia’s candidature will also give rise to a political rivalry between 'Raja Saheb' (Digvijaya Singh) and 'Maharaja Saheb' (Scindia).

Digvijaya Singh has already assigned his son Jaivardhan Singh to look after Gwalior-Chambal’s strategy. He has also brought many Scindia loyalists back into the Congress.

The BJP has so far declared 136 candidates for the 230 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, which will go to the polls on November 17. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 3, along with Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram.