With Scindia quitting the party, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh appeared headed for a collapse.
IMAGE: Former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia leaves from his residence in New Delhi. Photograph: ANI
In a massive setback for the Congress, its prominent youth leader Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the party and appeared set to join Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday amid a rebellion in Madhya Pradesh by his supporters, pushing the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government to the brink of collapse.
A shell-shocked Congress, in a largely symbolic move of no consequence, expelled Scindia, the party general secretary and scion of the erstwhile Gwalior royal family, on charges of anti-party activities.
On Tuesday morning, as much of India was celebrating Holi, Scindia met senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and home minister Amit Shah, following which he called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence.
There was no official word on what transpired at the meetings.
However, BJP sources asserted that the decision of the party’s top two leaders to hold long deliberations with Scindia underlined the importance they attach to him.
In the resignation letter dated March 9 to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Scindia said “it is now time for me to move on” as he was unable to serve the people of the country while remaining in the party.
The Congress party said his letter was received at Sonia Gandhi’s residence only at 12.20 pm on Tuesday.
With Scindia quitting the party, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh appeared headed for a collapse.
Sources said 22 Congress MLAs from Scindia’s camp have sent in their resignations.
The Congress has a wafer-thin majority in the Madhya Pradesh assembly whose current effective strength is 228.
If the resignations of the 22 MLAs is accepted, the strength of the assembly will fall to 206.
The magic number for retaining the majority then will be 104.
The Congress, however, will be left with 92 seats while the BJP has 104 seats.
The Congress has the support of four Independents, two Bahujan Samaj Party and one Samajwadi Party MLA.
Even with their support, the Congress will fall short of a majority, and it is anyway unclear if they will continue to support the Congress or go with the BJP
Noting that the events of the day had been drawing themselves out for a year, Scindia, in his letter to Gandhi, said it was now best for him to look at a fresh start.
“Having been a primary member of the Congress party for the last 18 years. It is now time for me to move on. I am tendering my resignation from the primary membership of the Congress and as you well know this is a path that has been drawing itself out over the last year,” Scindia wrote in the letter.
“While my aim and purpose remains the same as it has always been from the very beginning, to serve the people of my state and my country, I believe I am unable to do this anymore within this party,” Scindia said in his resignation letter posted on Twitter.
“To reflect and realise the aspirations of my people and workers I believe it is best that I now look ahead at a fresh start,” he said.
The former Guna MP also thanked Gandhi and his other former Congress colleagues for “providing him with a platform to have served the nation”.
Soon thereafter, a statement from All India Congress Committee general secretary K C Venugopal said the Congress president has “approved the expulsion of Jyotiraditya Scindia from the Indian National Congress with immediate effect for anti-party activities.”
Scindia, once considered a rising star of the party, has long been at loggerheads with Kamal Nath who belongs to the old guard.
After narrowly winning the state assembly elections in December 2018, Kamal Nath took over as chief minister.
But trouble started brewing recently when Scindia’s supporters in the government were side-lined, and it appeared that his ambitions to be the state Congress president were also thwarted.
It was also clear that the central leadership was not ready to listen to his grievances.
This weekend, Scindia and six ministers in the Kamal Nath Cabinet went to Bengaluru and became incommunicado.
It then became clear that a rebellion was brewing in the party and Kamal Nath would lose the support of the six ministers as well as other MLAs loyal to Scindia.
Kamal Nath on Tuesday wrote to Governor Tandon seeking immediate removal of six ministers who belonged to Scindia’s camp.
The outcome of the political drama being played out on Holi day goes beyond Madhya Pradesh, which itself is important for both the BJP and the Congress.
MP was one of the three major states where the Congress evicted the BJP in the series of assembly elections before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
With the imminent loss of Madhya Pradesh, it will become clear that the Congress leadership has failed to keep a cohesive united front and has been unable to control the conflicting ambitions of its many regional leaders.
Continued infighting is likely to further debilitate the party, which is already a pale shadow of its former greatness at the national level.
Regaining Madhya Pradesh will greatly enhance BJP’s strength in the Hindi belt, and Congress will have only Punjab and Rajasthan, where again it is beset with factional feuds, as the major states under its control.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said joining hands with BJP at a time of “national crisis” speaks volumes about Scindia’s “self-indulgent” ambitions.
He added that people like Scindia prove they cannot thrive without power, and the sooner they leave the better.
Another Congress leader, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, also slammed Scindia, saying it “is sad news for the Congress party”.
“He had been entrusted with important jobs by the party. But now the situation had come to such a pass that he found it more convenient to switch over to the other party,” Chowdhury said.
“Some sort of allurement, enticement offered by the BJP had convinced him for switching over,” Chowdhury said. “Now he has become the asset of the BJP party.”