While Bhartiya Janata Party handed a humiliating defeat to Congress in Madhya Pradesh, the devastating personal blow to Jyotiraditya Scindia in the form of his defeat in his family citadel-Guna—must have stung the most. Guna has been Scindias bastion since the formation of the state in the 50s.
The wounds of defeat must have singed Scindia, general secretary of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) as it was served by his old and trusted aide Dr Krishna Pal Singh Yadav. Yadav was Scindia’s Member of Parliament-representative but the denial of ticket to Dr Yadav from Mungaoli constituency of Guna in the 2018 assembly olls led to differences between the two, and eventually parting of ways.
So sure was Scindia that he had left his campaigning to his wife, Priyadarshini Raje who had arrogantly downplayed Yadav’s candidature. She even mocked Yadav after he filed his nomination saying, “Those who earlier lined up to click selfies with the ‘Maharaj’ are now BJP candidate.” In one of the pictures doing the rounds, Yadav is seen in front of the vehicle clicking a selfie with the Scindia, who is addressed as ‘Maharaj’ in Gwalior-Chambal region.
Dr Yadav’s association with Scindia continued smoothly till 2018 and Scindia reportedly asked Yadav to contest the by-poll from Mungaoli. Later, on reviewing the possibilities of success, the party backtracked on their proposal asking Yadav to halt his electoral plans, which led to bitterness between the two. It is also rumoured that Yadav had once been reprimanded by Scindia, which led to their separation in January 2018.
Dr Krishan Pal SinghYadav, an Ayurvedic physician by profession hails from Ashoknagar, where his father Raghuveer Singh Yadav was a Congress leader and a close associate of Madhav Rao Scindia, father of Jyotiraditya Scindia, and a four-time district panchayat president.
Bhartiya Janata Party entrusted their faith in Dr Yadav and offered him ticket from the constituency which he desired for, that is Mungaoli assembly seat. Though he lost the elections to Congress’s Brajendra Singh Yadav by 2136 votes, after giving him a tough run, BJP found a dependable, loyal and strong contender in him, and offered him the Guna seat against his one-time mentor and leader.
The BJP candidate was casted 6,14,049 votes, while Scindia managed to secure 4,88,500 votes, thereby handing a sounding defeat with a margin of 1,25,549 votes. This is the Scindia family’s first-ever defeat in Guna since the state of Madhya Pradesh came into being in 1957.
Although this defeat has caused a big conundrum within Congress, the reasons for defeat are complex and multi-layered. While a Scindia loyalist squarely blamed his loss to a strong Modi wave, where even Congress president Rahul Gandhi could not survive defeat from Amethi, some sources opined that as the constituency comprises of 70% farmers, the failure of loan waiver played a role in upstaging Scindia. Some blame the inaccessibility as one of the reasons. That there are over 2.5 lakh Yadav votes in Munagoli alone, to go with Gurjar votes, also didn’t help the matters for Scindia.
