THE PURPOSEFUL MISTAKE

Will Jyotiraditya Scindia get his ministerial berth anytime soon? According to BJP sources, he will have to first prove himself in the state byelections for the 22 rebel MLAS that joined the Congress along with him. The elections to these have to be held before 23 September. Sources also indicate that in all probability Scindia may not get a Cabinet berth but a Minister of State with Independent Charge, which is a post he has held earlier in the Congress as well. But those watching this space missed a very interesting development during the Rajya Sabha polls that took place in June recently. This saw cross-voting from the BJP camp for Congress nominee Digvijaya Singh. Only, and this is interesting, the MLA who voted for Digvijaya was Gopilal Jatav, who comes from Scindia’s own stronghold Guna from where he is the MLA. For the record, Jatav has said that he is a loyal BJP worker and he voted for Digvijaya by “mistake”. But given the fact that there is a strong resentment against the turncoats who have joined the BJP along with Scindia, there is a very real fear that in the coming bypolls there may be more Jatavs who will rather support the opposition than make the “mistake” of allowing a usurper to succeed in their own turf. So, Scindia does have a fight on his hands, but the fight will be more from within the ranks, than outside. And we still don’t know exactly what the state CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan feels about Scindia making a lateral entry into his party.