Amid BJP's domination, Jyotiraditya Scindia emerges hero of Madhya Pradesh bypolls

The gambit on Scindia has handsomely paid-off for BJP as the bypolls' results show

Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya Scindia may creditably claim a berth in the Narendra Modi cabinet as most of his 19 loyal MLAs, who quit the Congress in March this year to topple the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh, have won their respective assembly seats on the BJP ticket in the bypolls whose results came on Tuesday.

A ministerial post for himself in the Centre was one of the conditions of the deal that Scindia struck with the BJP for ensuring the Congress government’s fall. The other conditions were: BJP tickets for all the rebel MLAs and ministerial berths in the Shivraj Singh government for a dozen of them. The BJP obliged the erstwhile Congress leader on both counts. The gambit has handsomely paid-off for the ruling party as the bypolls' results show.

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Of the 28 seats for which bypolls were held on November 3, the BJP has won 19 while the Congress had to be content with just eight seats. With the result, the BJP’s tally has increased to 126 and Congress’s has shrunk to 96 in the 230-strong state Assembly. Of the remaining eight seats, four have independents, two are held by the BSP, and one by the Samajwadi Party. One seat is vacant due to the defection of a Congress MLA two weeks ago.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister for a fourth time on March 22, has not only secured his government but also his post by securing a landslide victory for BJP in the bypolls. He was the BJP’s biggest mascot and as such led the charge against a rather demoralized Congress which largely depended on election management of its state president Kamal Nath.

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The Congress premised its electoral campaign on an impassioned appeal to the voters to teach a lesson to the “traitors” who, the party averred, stabbed in the back of the democratically elected government in collusion with the BJP.

The appeal has obviously not impressed the voters. They have resoundingly rejected the Congress and instead put their trust in Chouhan’s promises for faster development of the state.

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The BJP’s, particularly the Chief Minister’s refrain all through the election campaign was that the Kamal Nath –led Congress government had reduced the state into a den of corruption and therefore, it is imperative for the BJP to rid the people of the misgovernance and put the state back on the path of development.

Chouhan also worked very hard to convince the rather sullen BJP cadres to bury the ill-will against the Congress defectors. His persuasive skills have borne fruits as the results unmistakably reveal.