Bhopal: Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, political heirs are emerging from nowhere in Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress tasted power last year after 15 years in exile. So it is only natural that the Congress heavyweights consider launching the political career of their kith and kin from their bastions.
The idea is to safeguard political turfs and family bastions. This ensures that the party candidate wins and political lineage is intact.
Two prominent Congress leaders in MP – Chief Minister Kamal Nath and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was also a strong contender for the CM's post - are reportedly keen on making their kin test the political waters.
After being sworn in as CM, Kamal Nath will have to get elected to the Assembly.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, son of former Congress stalwart Madhavrao Scindia, has been made the All-India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Western UP for the LS polls. He will have to drive the electoral fortunes of 39 out of the 80 LS seats for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh. Scindia would have to dedicate more time and resources in UP rather than his home state of Madhya Pradesh.
Effectively, political wisdom demands Scindia refrain from contesting the Lok Sabha polls this time.
But as it is his family pocket borough, Scindia cannot just leave Guna constituency to all and sundry – Guna is to the Scindia family what Amethi and Raebareli are to the Gandhis.
Enter The Political Lineage
The political lineage of the Gwalior Royals is a stuff of folklore in Guna.
The constituency falls in Gwalior region and it has been a Scindia family bastion which the Congress has been retaining since 1999.
His grandmother Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia and his late father Madhav Rao Scindia had represented the constituency.
Jyotiraditya Scindia himself was just one of the two Congress candidates who survived the Modi wave to emerge victorious from the state in 2014, with a margin of over 1.2 lakh votes.
Scindia's spouse Priyadarshini Raje Scindia is tipped to contest from Guna, which has eight assembly constituencies.
Priyadarshini, who hails from the erstwhile Gaekwad royalty of Baroda, had been a voter in Delhi earlier.
But a year ahead of the assembly elections, she enrolled as a voter from Shivpuri, a family bastion and one of the eight assembly constituencies in the Guna LS seat.
Priyadarshini, an alumna of Sophia College, Mumbai, is expected to kickstart her political campaign from February 18.
It is only natural that she will start her campaign, albeit unofficially, from Shivpuri, where she will address a meeting of women block-level party workers apart from addressing two public meetings.
The 'Maharani Sahiba' will then spent one day each in all assembly constituencies in the LS seat.
As per the Election Commission guidelines, a candidate need not be a registered voter in the particular assembly segment or parliamentary seat, but most contestants flaunt this as a link to the voters. However, you can't be a voter in two constituencies.
Priyadarshini featured in a prominent fashion and lifestyle magazine's list of 50 most beautiful women in the country a few years ago.
During the previous elections, she has addressed many rallies and street-corner meetings.
So far, the Congress leadership has not announced that Priyadarshini will contest from the seat. But MPCC general secretary Yogendra Lumba tabled a resolution in this regard at a Congress meeting in Guna and it received unanimous support.
"As Jyotiraditya Scindia has been placed in charge of Western Uttar Pradesh, we feel Maharaniji can immensely contribute to the party. So a resolution was adopted unanimously and has been sent to the central leadership," Lumba told mediapersons.
No one in the Congress has come out against this.
"If the Congress party leaders and workers of the Guna parliamentary seat feels that Priyadarshini should contest in the elections, this will strengthen the party. Her entry will strengthen the social service work and welfare activities," state Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said.
But it is also a fact that she is the Congress' best bet if her husband Jyotiraditya is not contesting. The royals of the erstwhile Gwalior kingdom, one of the richest of the more than 500 princely states that became part of India after British rule ended in 1947, enjoys immense clout here.
Guna Lok Sabha seat comprises eight assembly segments, with four each in Shivpuri and Guna districts.
In the assembly elections last year, the Congress won five assembly segments in the Guna seat – three in Guna and two in Shivpuri.
The local Sangh leadership does not seem to have an answer to who its candidate will be.
To a query on this, Jai Bhan Singh Pawaiya, a former Madhya Pradesh minister, cut the phone. Now you know what Guna has in store.
Another 'Kamal' To Bloom In Chhindwara
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath has been the MP from Chhindwara for nine terms.
Now, after taking over as the MP chief minister, Kamal Nath will have to vacate the seat and get elected to the assembly.
Last Sunday, when he visited the constituency for the first time after taking over as CM, he had his eldest son by his side in all three public functions he attended.
That was the first time that residents of Chhindwara were getting a glance of Nakul Nath along with his father.
Kamal Nath left the constituency in the evening, but Nakul, a Boston University graduate, stayed back.
He began a three-day tour meeting the layman, party functionaries and representatives of various organisations near his residence at Sikarpur, located on the outskirts of the Chhindwara town.
Nakul is also slated to meet party functionaries and expected to attend three meetings, according to the district Congress committee.
The message that Kamal Nath left behind is now resonating at the state headquarters of the Congress – the buzz is that Nakul would take over the reins of Chhindwara LS seat from the CM.
A final decision and official communication in this regard will come later.
“Nakul Nath has always worked in Chhindwara with his father when he contested from the Lok Sabha seat. The local Congress leaders want and have demanded that he contest the seat,” Rajeev Singh, MPCC general secretary in charge of administration, said.
The seat has been represented by 72-year-old Kamal Nath for nine times since 1980, when former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi had personally accompanied him to file his nomination papers. Indira then described him as her "third son".
Chhindwara, the Lok Sabha bastion of Madhya Pradesh chief Minister, is part of the key Mahakaushal region.
The region has voted differently when it comes to Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
For instance, the Congress was able to wrest only three out of the seven seats in Chhindwara district in the 2013 Assembly elections in the state.
However, six months later, Nath went on to win the Lok Sabha seat for the ninth time, surviving the Narendra Modi wave which swept the Hindi heartland.
The seat has seven assembly segments – Junnardeo, Amarwara, Chourai, Sausar, Chhindwara, Parasia and Pandhurna. Four are reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes which leaves Nath with three constituencies to contest – Chhindwara, Sausar and Chourai.
In the recently held Assembly elections, the Congress won all the seven assembly segments.
Kamal Nath had indicated that he will contest the by-election from a constituency in the district where the Congress candidate wins with a maximum number of votes.
"I am thinking to contest election either from Sausar or from Chhindwara after discussing with local people," Nath told this correspondent last week.
Dynasty In Play
This is not the first time that a CM's son is joining the political fray in MP. Sons of two Congress chief ministers are into active politics now. State minister Jaivardhan Singh is the son of former CM Digvijaya Singh.
Former legislator Ajay Singh 'Rahul Bhaiyaa' is the son of another former chief minister Arjun Singh.
MP's first chief minister was Ravishankar Shukla, whose elder son Shyama Charan Shukla also became the chief minister.
His another son Vidya Charan Shukla was a Union minister.
Former PCC chief and deputy chief minister Subhash Yadav's son Sachin Yadav is also a minister in the Kamal Nath cabinet.
It seems, the central Indian state is a fertile breeding ground for political dynasties that have a stranglehold over assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies.
