‘Will give it best shot’: Scindia new west UP incharge

The new general secretary will continue to be the party’s chief whip in LS

NEWDELHI: Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia was on Wednesday named the general secretary incharge of the party for West Uttar Pradesh in an effort to strengthen its presence in the region ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. “I thank Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has shown faith in me. I will work to the best of my ability like always to strengthen the party in western Uttar Pradesh,” Scindia tweeted after the announcement.

BHOPAL: When there was a Narendra Modi wave in the country ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) almost swept Madhya Pradesh, winning 27 out of the total 29 seats in the state.

The two seats the BJP couldn’t win were Guna and Chhindwara. Kamal Nath, now the state’s chief minister, won Chhindwara.

And Jyotiraditya Scindia won Guna.

It was Scindia’s fourth successive win.

The son of former Union minister Madhavrao Scindia and scion of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior, Scindia is a popular leader in the state.

Now elevated as Congress general secretary and given charge of Uttar Pradesh (West), which accounts for more seats in the Lok Sabha than any other state in the country, Scindia, 48, led the party’s campaign in the After assembly by-poll in 2017 and the Kolaras and Mungaoli assembly by-polls last year.

Scindia tweeted after Wednesday’s announcement: “I thank Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has shown faith in me. I will work to the best of my ability to strengthen the party in western Uttar Pradesh.”

During the by-polls, to ensure that the contest was entirely above board, he convinced the Election Commission to get all candidates to sign off on the tabulation of votes after each round of counting — a move aimed at ensuring transparency.

The Congress pushed for the same procedure during the assembly elections.

Scindia, a former president of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA), will continue to be the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha.

He has served as minister of state for telecom and information technology (IT) and commerce and also as minister of state (independent charge) power in two United Progressive Alliance governments.

Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath on Wednesday said the appointments of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Scindia as general secretaries will give a big boost to the party’s prospects in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Congratulating the two leaders, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister said the party is fully geared to go into elections with a very strong level of optimism.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that with Scindia and Priyanka Gandhi as incharges in UP, the goal of the party was to “present a new dream” in the state.