JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA IS no stranger to the BJP. His links to the saffron party go beyond grandmother Vijaya Raje Scindia and aunts Vasundhara Raje and Yashodhara Raje Scindia—all BJP members.
When Scindia went to his ancestral village to perform the last rites of his father, Madhavrao Scindia, who died in a plane crash in September 2001, he was accompanied by Arun Jaitley, then minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Jaitley and Scindia Sr were thick friends. So much so that Jaitley had a photograph of Scindia Sr on his table at his home in Kailash Colony, Delhi. Jaitley also represented him in court in the hawala scam in 1996.
Cricket, too, united Jaitley and the Scindias. Scindia was a member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India; Scindia Sr was once president of the BCCI. In November 2014, Scindia’s son, Mahanaryaman, underwent training for three months in the finance ministry—when he had the portfolio. Mahanaryaman, who recently graduated from Yale University, was often seen in Jaitley’s office even during key meetings—a rare sight in the deeply divided polity post the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Thanks to his proximity to Jaitley, Scindia was rarely criticised by BJP leaders.
“He has come home to family,” said BJP president J.P. Nadda. “Vijaya Raje Scindia had formed the BJP, now we are welcoming her grandson.” The Gwalior royal was supposed to join the BJP at 12:30pm on March 11, but “inauspicious rahu kaal” saw it being postponed to 2pm. When Scindia finally took the stage, he asked for Syed Zafar Islam, former Deutsche Bank managing director who had joined the BJP in 2014. And so, the soft-spoken party spokesman shared the stage with senior leaders including Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Both Islam and Pradhan were involved in the secret operation that saw Scindia and 22 Congress MLAs jump ship.
“Home Minister Amit Shah was central to this whole game plan,” said a party source. “He has met Scindia on several occasions. When it was clear that it needed a final push, Pradhan was roped in.” Pradhan, who is close to Shah, was in charge of the state assembly polls in 2018, and is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from the state.
Islam, on the other hand, knew Scindia earlier; Scindia was an investment banker before he joined politics. Over several meetings, Scindia opened up about feeling sidelined in the Congress. Despite playing a key role in swinging BJP strongholds for the party in the 2018 assembly polls, he gave up the chief minister’s chair on Rahul Gandhi’s insistence. Losing his Guna Lok Sabha seat added to his woes and alienation. Islam’s meetings with Scindia slipped under the radar of senior Congress leaders as he was a low-key party functionary. Though keen on joining the BJP, Scindia needed assurance as it was Shah who had pitted his former loyalist K.P. Yadav against him in his family bastion, turning it into a maharaja vs commoner battle. Islam then acted as an emissary between Scindia and Shah.
With the Rajya Sabha elections due on March 26, there was an urgency to the whole operation. Shah held several meetings with leaders, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, to finalise the strategy. Finally, Shah took Scindia to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Scindia was promised a Rajya Sabha seat and a central role. But the BJP needed more than just Scindia by its side. The BJP had been trying to lure MLAs of the ruling Congress and its allies for long, and had even shifted 10 MLAs to a Gurugram hotel. Chief Minister Kamal Nath and senior leader Digvijaya Singh, however, managed to ward off the minor rebellion by “rescuing” six MLAs. This time though, the BJP, with Scindia’s help, whisked off the rebel MLAs to Karnataka.
“Scindia has always been a nationalist,” said BJP state chief V.D. Sharma. “He supported the Modi government when Article 370 was abolished and even when the Citizenship Amendment Act was enacted.”
With his entry, all the Scindia royals are now in the BJP. Another royal who helped convince Scindia to join the BJP is Shubhangini Gaekwad. Both Shubhangini and Scindia’s wife, Priyadarshini, belong to the Gaekwad royal family of Baroda. Vajpayee had great regard for the Scindia family as he was able to complete his education through the stipend given by them. Likewise, Modi has been indebted to the Gaekwad family for a similar initiative. Ahead of the 2014 elections, he had requested Shubhangini to be his proposer from the Vadodara seat, the second seat he contested apart from Varanasi.
In the coming days, it would be interesting to see the role Scindia plays in the BJP. Scindia’s influence in the Gwalior-Chambal region can help the BJP gain some ground there. Also, his switch to the BJP could attract other ‘sidelined’ leaders in the Congress. But he will have to work harder to win the confidence of hardcore BJP leaders and workers who owe their allegiance to the RSS, the BJP’s ideological mentor.
Also, there is a churn within the BJP in MP. Chouhan, often seen as moulded in Vajpayee’s style of politics, faces some threat from leaders considered close to Modi and Shah. Perhaps, that is why he chose to stay in the state rather than play a national role after his defeat in the state elections. The BJP has denied Rajya Sabha tickets to old-timers Satyanarayan Jatiya and Prabhat Jha, who were also close to Vajpayee and L.K. Advani.
The poaching drama though is far from over in the state. “We are busy forming our strategy. We are engaging with the rebel Congress MLAs and will keep them from returning,” said Sharma. Nath, however, said that he is hopeful of proving a majority in the house; the assembly session starts on March 16.
As Scindia forges a new political bond, a personal bond is set to suffer—his friendship with Rahul Gandhi. The two 49-year-olds have known each other since their Doon school days. Scindia would often be by Rahul’s side in the Lok Sabha. They also dressed similarly, clad in white kurta-pyjama and sleeveless bomber jacket. When asked if he had refused to meet Scindia, an emotional Gandhi said, “He was the only person who could visit my house anytime.”