The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Ghosts of 2019 in Guna as Jyotiraditya faces another Yadav, another turncoat
The sides are reversed now, with the Scindia scion in BJP and his rival a Bjp-turned-congress leader
IT WILL be turncoat vs turncoat in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna Lok Sabha seat, with the Congress pitting former BJP leader Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav against its one-time stalwart Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Besides the symbolism, another reason for the Congress's choice is the significant Yadav presence, estimated to be over 4 lakh, in Guna.
In the 2019 Lo kS ab ha elections,sc india, then a congress candidate, had lost to KP Yadav, a former loyalist turned BJP leader. Scindia's embarrassing defeat from his own turf by 1.25 lakh votes set in motion a series of events, including an internal party struggle, eventually resulting in Scindia's exit from the party in 2020. He took along 22 MLAS, causing the collapse of the Congress government led by Kamal Nath that had come to power in 2018. The BJP brought Scindia into Parliament via the Rajya Sabha and made him a Union minister.
Yadvendra Yadav used to be the BJP'S Ashok Nagar district panchayat president before he moved to the Congress prior to the 2023 Assembly elections. He subsequently contested the elections from the Mungaoli Assembly seat, losing by a narrow margin of 5,422 votes to the BJP'S Brijendra Singh Yadav.
Not all Congress leaders are happy with the party fielding Yadvendra Yadav from Guna. A senior local leader who was vying for the Guna ticket said: "How can you trust a person whose entire family is in the BJP (including his mother, brother and other members)? Did they not think of the Congress leaders who have been fighting the BJP for 15 years?”
Dismissing the logic of the Yadav vote, the leader told The
Indian Express: “There is a Yadav CM now (the BJP'S Mohan Yadav). Will they (the Yadav community) be swayed by a CM or a smalltime panchayat leader? We could have fielded a former minister like Arun Yadav. Giving the ticket to a turncoat is a mistake.”
Defending the decision, another senior Congress leader from Guna said: “In 2019, Scindia was defeated by a local from Guna. The Yadavs form a substantial voting bloc in Guna and that helped K P Yadav. We hope that being a former BJP leader, Yadvendra Yadav will also cut into the BJP vote bank.”
On Arun Yadav, the leader said: “His base is in Khargone and he would not have been able to take on Scindia in his home base.”
Determined to not have a 2019 repeat, Scindia began campaigning in the seat, which votes on May 7, before he was even officially declared the BJP candidate. The royal scion has been attending important events of different communities, as part of his concerted makeover, now that he is in the BJP, from an aloof “maharaja” to a hardworking “karyakarta”.
The november assembly elections indicated that Sc india had recovered some of the lost ground in the region, with thebjp increasing its tally from 7 of 34 Assembly seats here in 2018, to 18.
The other names announced by the Congress on Wednesday were former MP Pratap Bhanu Sharma from Vidisha, where he will face EX-BJP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan; and Tarvar Singh Lodhi from Damoh, against the BJP'S Rahul Lodhi. The Damoh fight is expected to be interesting as both the Lodhis are seen as followers of BJP leader Uma Bharti.
With Wednesday night's list, the Congress has announced candidates for 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, having left Khajuraho for the Samajwadi Party.
The Congress is yet to announce names for Gwalior, Khandwa and Morena seats.
The BJP has named candidates for all 29 seats in the state. KP Yadav, incidentally, doesn't figure in the list, though the party has taken care to ensure that he remains in the BJP, his constant attacks on Scindia notwithstanding.