India - Battle royale in the strongholds of Scindias

K.V. Prasad



SHIVPURI: Part of the troika districts in Madhya Pradesh where the royal Scindia family has held its sway, the area is important for both Gwalior MP Yashodhara Raje and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia in their own ways. The Gwalior-Shivpuri-Guna belt is known to be strongholds of the Scindias.

For Union Minister Scindia, the current election is important as he has been able to secure ticket for many of his candidates in the region and the outcome can determine his position in the quest for leadership in the State.

And Mr. Scindia is aware that he needs to break out of the Shivpuri-Guna cocoon in order to establish his presence across the State.

Though the Congress is on a better wicket in the area, the comfort level is missing as the Bahujan Samaj Party has made inroads.

At public meetings for candidates in the region, Mr. Scindia makes it a point to ask the electorate whether he can leave for campaign elsewhere, assuming the voters will back his party. “Or do you want me to remain here since the BJP has fielded Ministers with the sole aim of tying me down?” he seeks to know. The response is not always enthusiastic.

For Ms. Raje, it is time to establish her presence in the BJP. Being the daughter of BJP stalwart Rajmata Vijayraje Scindia and sister of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje could be both boon and bane. While expectations from the people remain high, opposition from within party ranks is equally crushing.

After having failed to have a candidate of her choice in the Shivpuri Assembly by-poll in 2007, a seat she vacated on being elected to the Lok Sabha, Ms. Raje is concentrating on the constituencies under Gwalior Lok Sabha, where she did manage to get ticket.

Apart from the BSP factor, the presence of Uma Bharti’s Bharatiya Jan Shakti candidates is causing concern as are issues of neglect by sitting legislators. At village meetings, she promises to be accessible and seeks to establish rapport across various communities.

In a move that appears to have clicked well, Ms. Raje inducted her New York-based son Akshay Bhansali to campaign for the BJP.

The young MTV ‘journalist’ may not be at ease in Hindi but enjoyed spontaneous response during ‘road shows.” As one resident in Ahir colony said “after all he is visiting his maternal house.”

Mr. Bhansali, told The Hindu, that he is registered as a voter in Louisiana but shied away from disclosing whether he was a Democrat or a Republican. “I am an American,” he says with a clipped accent just as he graciously accepts a candy from a young voter.