Prepare for a homecoming, Mamaji is coming back to power in Madhya Pradesh

Maharashtra politics has kept political enthusiasts on their toes for the past few days, and the uncertainty just does not seem to end. However, there is possibly more coming up to keep the rest of 2019 as eventful as ever. We are talking about Madhya Pradesh, which might have just stolen the limelight from Maharashtra. Royalty and prominent Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia Twitter bio has sent the ball rolling for possibly a destabilisation of the Kamal Nath government in the state. Above that, several Congress MLAs in MP have reportedly gone ‘incommunicado’.

Jyotiraditya Scindia’s Twitter bio has suddenly been change and speculations are rife that all is not well in the Congress government of Madhya Pradesh. Scindia has removed his former affiliations with the Congress government and added only, ‘Public servant, Cricket enthusiast’ on his Twitter bio.

His Twitter bio earlier read, ‘Former MP of Guna from 2002 to 2019; Former Minister of Power, MoS of Commerce and Industry and MoS Communications, IT and Post.’ But now, all his past affiliations with the Congress have been wiped off, fueling speculations that Scindia may be pursuing a clean slate for the future course of his political career.

Scindia, meanwhile, has said that the ‘rumours are baseless’, however, for the Congress, this situation should still set off a red alert as this is further exacerbated by the news that several Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh are ‘untraceable’ for the past few days. It remains to be seen what is the exact number of MLAs that have gone incommunicado. This is could mark the start of Amit Shah’s Operation Kamal in Madhya Pradesh.

It is known that Kamal Nath’s appointment as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh had upset the younger Scindia camp in the MP Congress. It has been observed that Jyotiraditya Scindia has at certain times, been critical of the Congress state government and has also refused to toe the party line, most noticeably during the deoperationalisation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, where Scindia supported the Modi government’s decision. 

https://twitter.com/JM_Scindia/status/1158729410507182080?s=20

In what further exposes the faultlines within the Madhya Pradesh Congress, senior party leader Jyotiradtiya Scindia, had earlier taken a jibe at the Kamal Nath led government in the state. Scindia criticised the Kamal Nath government, saying, “The farm loan waiver of farmers has not been done in totality. Loan of only Rs 50,000 has been waived off even when we had said that loan upto Rs 2 Lakh will be waived off. Farm loan upto Rs 2 Lakh should be waived off.”.

In the Assembly polls in 2018, the Congress secured 114 while the BJP was close with 109 seats, but the Congress government secured a wafer-thin majority in Madhya Pradesh and surprisingly, Jyotiraditya Scindia wasn’t made the Chief Minister. Kamal Nath has seen him as a challenger and a threat and has repeatedly tried to keep Scindia away from Madhya Pradesh which was evident when Scindia was made the Western Uttar Pradesh in-charge for the Lok Sabha polls leaving Kamal Nath to have his way in Madhya Pradesh.

Recent developments mean that the winds of political change may soon turn their direction from Maharashtra and towards Madhya Pradesh. Earlier, on November 23, amid rumours that Uddhav Thackeray was set to lead the NCP-Shiv Sena-Congress government from the front, Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra with the support NCP’s then Legislative Party leader Ajit Pawar. The ‘midnight coup’ provided a possible climax to the Maharashtra story, however, the fallout has been uncertain and it remains to be seen if the BJP-NCP government can pass the floor test.

A coup at the hands of Scindia could shake the foundations of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh. Scindia has cordial ties with top leaders of the BJP such as his aunt, Vasundhara Raje and former MP CM ‘Mamaji’ Shivraj Singh Chauhan whom Scindia has had meetings with in the past few months. If Scindia deserts the Congress with his camp of MLAs, Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s government may soon return to power. Kamal Nath government could be indeed be hanging from a very thin thread.