Scindia joins BJP, slams Cong for ‘denying reality’
| Date :12-Mar-2020 |
NEW DELHI :
As many as 22 Congress MLAs, most of them supporters of Scindia, are camping in Bengaluru and have resigned from the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, reducing the Congress Government to a minority
A DAY after quitting the Congress, Jyotiraditya Scindia joined the BJP on Wednesday in the presence of its President J P Nadda and slammed his former party for “denying reality” and “not acknowledging” new thoughts and new leadership. Scindia, who was also named as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh by the BJP, hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “competence and complete dedication” to serving India and asserted that the country’s future is fully secure in his hands. He vented his anguish with the national leadership of the Congress, where he started his electoral career in 2002 and occupied key positions, and also the party-run Madhya Pradesh government, saying the dream when it was formed in 2018 now lay “shattered” with farmers and youths living in distress and corruption rampant. The Congress is no longer the party it was, he told reporters, adding that his heart was “anguished and pained” as his goal to serve people through the party was no longer possible.
On the occasion, Nadda recalled Vijaya Raje Scindia, one of the BJP’s founders and grandmother of Jyotiraditya, and welcomed him into the “family”, saying it is a matter of great happiness for his party that her grandson is joining it. His father Madhavrao Scindia, the BJP President added, had also started his politics as a Jana Sangh MP. The BJP later named the 49-year-old scion of the erstwhile Gwalior royalty as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh. The BJP is confident of toppling the Kamal Nath Government in the State and capturing power there with the help of MLAs loyal to Scindia.
As many as 22 Congress MLAs, most of them supporters of Scindia, are camping in Bengaluru and have resigned from the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, reducing the Congress Government to a minority. Peeved with his marginalisation in the Congress, Scindia had met Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday and quit the party. “The Congress of today is no longer the party it was. The party is denying reality. It is not acknowledging the reality. New thoughts, new ideology and new leadership are not being acknowledged. While this is the condition at national level, the dream we had formed for Madhya Pradesh has been shattered in 18 months,” he said after joining the BJP. Hailing Modi, he said the Prime Minister has received mandates that that no Government probably got. “He has enhanced India’s prestige globally.
The ability he has to execute schemes and comprehend future challenge; his competence and full dedication... India’s future is fully secure in his hands,” he said, adding that he was grateful to the top BJP brass to give him a chance to serve people. Scindia asserted that his goal is to serve people in “Bharat mata” and remembered his father Madhavrao Scindia, who left the Jana Sangh to join the Congress later to become one of its leading figures before meeting an untimely death in a plane crash in 2001. He noted that his father would have turned 75 on Tuesday, the day he quit the Congress. A number of senior BJP leaders, including Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and its general secretaries Anil Jain and Arun Singh sat besides Scindia on the dais when he spoke. He said in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress’s promise to waive loans of farmers was not fulfilled and thousands of them continued to face criminal cases lodged during Mandsaur violence, where several farmers had died in police firing in 2017 during the BJP’s reign. There are few employment opportunities in the state and only “transfer industry” is growing with corruption being rampant, he said. He made no comment on the fluid political developments in the state and did not take any question from reporters.
10,000 Cong office-bearers quit party after Scindia: MP leader: After Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the Congress, around 10,000 of its office-bearers have resigned from the party in Madhya Pradesh and several more are likely to do so, a former leader of the grand old party claimed on Wednesday. The ruling Congress, however, refuted this claim and said the supporters of Scindia were creating pressure on other leaders to leave the party. “About 10,000 office-bearers of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh- from state-level to block-level, including some district presidents, have resigned from the Congress since Tuesday morning owing their allegiance to Scindia ji,” former state Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi, who also quit the party along with Scindia, told PTI on Wednesday. “More leaders will resign from the party soon,” he claimed.
BJP names Jyotiraditya as Rajya Sabha candidate
Staff Reporter :
BHOPAL, THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named new-entrant Jyotiraditya Scindia as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. Notably, three seats of Rajya Sabha are going to polls in near future. On March 13, at 12 noon, Jyotiraditya Scindia will reach BJP office here and after garlanding portraits of great leaders, he will go to Madhya Pradesh Assembly to file his nomination papers for Rajya Sabha. Political equations got changed in Madhya Pradesh after Jyotiraditya Scindia joined BJP by leaving Congress party. Earlier, in the Assembly of 230 seats, Congress is having 114 MLAs while BJP was having 107 MLAs. By this equation, BJP and Congress have comfortable position on one each seat of Rajya Sabha while there was possibility of election on third Rajya Sabha seat. For one Rajya Sabha seat, 58 votes of MLAs are needed. But after Scindia supporter MLAs and ministers tendering their resignations to follow footsteps of their leader, situation has become muddy. It looks that BJP now would easily get two Rajya Sabha seats. As far as Jyotiraditya Scindia is concerned then it was anticipated earlier that if he goes to BJP then he could be named as Rajya Sabha candidate and same proved true on Wednesday. Meanwhile, BJP said that Jyotiraditya Scindia will reach Bhopal at 3 pm on Thursday. After landing at Raja Bhoj Airport, Scindia will go to BJP office and will garland portraits of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia and others.