Congress woos high-profile BJP families in poll-bound MP

BHOPAL, APRIL 2: The assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh is just six months away and the opposition Congress is trying its best to woo discontent high-profile BJP families.

The Congress party’s plans were first tried in the Gwalior-Chambal region and later rolled into the Malwa-Nimar region.

It was on March 22, the Hindu New Year’s day that Rao Yadvendra Singh Yadav, elder son of three-times former BJP MLA Rao Deshraj Singh Yadav, and his supporters crossed over to the Congress in the presence of Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh, and others.

Ashok Nagar district with three assembly segments is part of the Guna Lok Sabha constituency. The constituency was till 2019 considered a pocket borough of the erstwhile Gwalior state’s Scindia royal family. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, four times sitting MP Jyotiraditya Scindia was defeated by his protégé and BJP candidate Dr KP Yadav.

Late Rao Deshraj Singh Yadav’s family is considered the oldest Yadav family of the BJP in that region and particularly has a major clout in the Mungaoli assembly seat of Ashok Nagar district, which was thrice won by a late BJP stalwart.

While joining the Congress, Rao Yadevendra Singh Yadav said that after Jyotiraditya Scindia and his supporters joined the BJP three years ago, the long-time BJP loyalists were sidelined in the party. Lately, BJP has also become a corrupt party, he said citing these as the reasons for his decision to join the Congress.

According to key state Congress sources, the party is exploring the possibility of fielding Yadvendra from the Mungaoli seat, which is presently represented by Scindia-loyalist and MP minister Brajendra Singh Yadav.

Just three months prior to this development, the Congress had won over BJP MP Dr KP Yadav’s brother Ajay Yadav to its ranks. Ajay Yadav is likely to be fielded from another Yadav-dominated seat of either Ashok Nagar or Shivpuri district.

The Guna Lok Sabha constituency is spread over eight assembly segments of three districts – Ashok Nagar, Shivpuri and Guna – and houses around 3.5 lakh Yadav voters, which is more than 20% of the total voters. The Yadavs have a decisive sway on four of those eight assembly seats.

Just nine days later, ex-CM and present Rajya Sabha member, Digvijaya Singh –the mastermind of creating a dent in BJP’s Yadav family in Ashok Nagar district — was in Barwani district of southwest MP, winning yet another big BJP leader, this time former MP and ex-Barwani District Panchayat chief Makhansingh Solanki.

Solanki, a BJP veteran who won the Khargone LS seat in 2009, defeating ex-MP minister Bala Bachchan by 34,000-plus votes, was feeling sidelined following the ascendency of much younger leaders in the BJP, including his own nephew Sumer Singh Solanki (who was sent to the Rajya Sabha in 2020) and present Khargone MP Gajendra Patel, besides old warhorse and MP cabinet minister Prem Singh Patel.

As per sources within the BJP, getting a whiff of Congress’s plans, the party had pressed its senior leader and state’s agriculture minister Kamal Patel to prevent Makhansingh from joining Congress, but the efforts failed.

As per a senior state Congress leader — who comes from the Digvijaya Singh camp – the process of capitalizing on cracks within old families (particularly owing to feelings of insecurity among old BJP leaders due to the rising clout of Scindia-loyalists) will continue in the coming days and some more big BJP families in various parts of MP, are on the Congress’s radar.

-TNIE