Amid tensions in MP BJP, Scindia loyalist returns to Congress in a 700-car convoy to ‘send a message’

Waiting for the 73-year-old leader at the Congress event in Bhopal were ex-CMs, Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh, who welcomed his return into the party fold. Along with Baijnath, 15 district-level BJP leaders also joined the Congress.

#BigBreaking :- शिवपुरी के सिंधिया समर्थक नेता बैजनाथ सिंह यादव अपने हजारों समर्थकों के साथ मध्यप्रदेश कांग्रेस पार्टी में शामिल होने जा रहा है। pic.twitter.com/h3cvMFkKkV

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“Today is a happy occasion for me because you are not here to support the Congress, you are here to support the truth. I am not a Maharaja, I don’t have a castle. You have in your life only seen Maharaja, now you can see Kamal Nath as well,” Nath said.

Baijnath, who had joined politics in his youth, had served as the director of the Shivpuri bhumi vikas bank for a decade.

Digvijay’s son and Congress MLA Jaivardhan Singh is credited with bringing him back to the Congress.

“Baijnath Singh was a loyal Congress worker. He was with Scindia and followed him to the BJP. Three years later he saw the larger picture. Seeing the momentum, with Kamal Nath ji’s efforts, he returned to the party,” Jaivardhan told The Indian Express.

Jaivardhan said that the issue with Scindia and his loyalists in the BJP was a “lack of ideology” which has created tensions between them and the BJP’s entrenched camp in the state.

“Lot of people in BJP are disillusioned…We are working towards coming back to power in the coming Assembly polls and see that the people’s mandate is respected,” he said.

The Congress has been trying to tap into the Scindia strongholds by drive a wedge between his loyalist group and the traditional BJP camp.

The 15-month Kamal Nath government was brought down by Scindia’s rebellion, who brought 22 of his loyalist MLAs (including six ministers) with him into the BJP fold.

For over two years now, the BJP has been trying to accomodate Scindia’s followers in its fold, which has come at the cost of their own workers feeling “disgruntled and disenchanted”, said a BJP leader.

Baijnath, sources said, was unhappy over not being considered for an MLA ticket. He is not the first from the Scindia group to leave the BJP. BJP leader Yadvendra Singh had joined the Congress in March.

Said a senior Congress leader, “The BJP is grappling with a situation where former rivals are now in the same party. In some seats Scindia loyalists and BJP’s veteran leaders are at loggerheads with each other over ticket distribution. We are going to exploit that to the hilt.”

A Congress leader from the Gwalior region said, “If Scindia’s loyalists start breaking away, he will be humiliated and look very weak. The point is to send a message to the BJP that they made a mistake by inducting Scindia and giving him a plum position… Those of his supporters who did not get anything are getting disenchanted. We are working from behind the scenes to get that camp unravelled.”

The Congress leaders have regularly been training their guns on Scindia without taking his name. From Priyanka Gandhi’s speech in Jabalpur which kicked off the Congress campaign, to daily speeches by Kamal Nath, there is always a mention of “regret of people leaving the party for power” and a “resolve to not give into deals with the BJP.”

The Congress had in May latched on to a video in which BJP MP from Guna, K P Yadav, who had turned out to be a giant killer by defeating Scindia (then Congress candidate) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by 1,25,549 votes, was seen criticising some leaders from his own party for seeking apology from people. The Congress said that Yadav was referring to Scindia in the video when he stated that “some people are such fools that they do not even know what to speak from the dais. They consider themselves to be intellectuals.”

“Such statements are made by those who do not know that we are in the BJP. The party has governments in the state and at the Centre and has an MP from here. You are shouting from the stage where a Central Minister and other representatives are present that a mistake was made by us in 2019,” Yadav was then heard as saying.

The Congress had alleged that Yadav was referring to Scindia’s speech at a convention of Vaishya and Jain communities in Shivpuri, where he asked for “forgiveness” for the mistakes committed by him in the past.

Scindia had said that people needed to stop pointing accusing fingers at others and instead adopt the Jain philosophy of asking for forgiveness. “Jaane anjane mein mujhse agar koi galti hui hai toh maaf karr dena (Knowingly or unknowingly if I have made mistakes, then forgive me),” he had said with folded hands.

Yadav had, however, clarified later that he he did not refer to Scindia. However, this had come after the senior leaders from the BJP had gone into damage control mode and held meetings with Yadav “asking him not to make public statements against Scindia,” said a BJP leader.

“Those who are in the party for decades are getting angry with the Scindia loyalists. They are here for just three years and are getting plum posts and gaining importance. We are a party with an ideology, unlike the Congress which doesn’t believe in anything but greed. This has unsettled some BJP workers who don’t feel like working on the ground for Scindia loyalists,” said a BJP leader.

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BJP spokesperson Hitesh Bajpai said,”Some people from the Congress party came with Scindia in hopes of getting good positions. Here in the BJP they have to work hard to earn their place. As far as Baijnath ji’s convoy is concerned, it is a display of feudal mindset which the people of this country hate.”