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A day after resigning from the Congress, Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday, 11 March, joined the BJP in the presence of party president JP Nadda, and hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership, saying the country's future is secure in his hands.
Welcoming Scindia into the BJP, senior party leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he was the most popular Congress politician in Madhya Pradesh, which led the party to coin a tagline targeting the Scindia in the 2018 state polls.
In the run-up to the November 2018 Assembly elections, the BJP had centred its campaign around a slogan, "Maaf karo Maharaj hamara neta toh Shivraj (Sorry Maharaj, our leader is Shivraj)" to take on the Congress.
Chouhan was then the BJP chief minister and was seeking a fourth term in office. Scindia, a member of the royal family that once ruled Gwalior, is popularly known as Maharaj among his supporters.
When asked how he will feel now to work with Scindia whom the BJP targeted during the Assembly polls campaign, Chouhan said, If anyone was popular among Congress leaders, it was Maharaj, so we used 'Maaf karo Maharaj' slogan. Now Shivraj and Maharaj are together in the BJP."
“Jyotiraditya Scindia has become a member of the BJP family,” he further said.
Good to Be on the Same Team: Vasundhara Raje
BJP national vice president and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje on Wednesday welcomed her nephew Jyotiraditya Scindia's decision to join the BJP, saying he has followed the high ideals of the legacy of Vijaya Raje Scindia.
"Jyotiraditya has followed the high ideals of the legacy of Vijaya Raje Scindia and took the decision in the interest of the country. I welcome this decision personally and politically,” she said in a statement in Jaipur.
Raje also tweeted saying it is good to be on the same team.
"If Rajmata Sahab was here today, she would be elated to see you put the nation first. I admire your strength of character and courage. It's good to be on the same team. Welcome to the BJP," she wrote on Twitter.
Murder of Democracy: Ashok Gehlot
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday spoke on Scindia's decision to quit the Congress, saying, "Congress party gave him so much but he showed opportunism. People will not forgive him."
Gehlot also accused the BJP of "shamelessly" indulging in horse-trading in Madhya Pradesh on the basis of money power.
Those ruling the country are murdering the democracy and the entire country will teach them a lesson, he told reporters at the airport in Jaipur as he arrived to receive Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh who were being shifted to Jaipur in an attempt to keep the party’s flock together.
“Horse-trading is being done shamelessly and MLAs are being threatened there (Madhya Pradesh). The MLAs are coming to Jaipur from Madhya Pradesh and we all are together,” Gehlot said, referring to the BJP.
He said all this is being done on the basis of money power.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said that he felt bad that Scindia had left Congress. “Three days back I held talks with him and told him that there is no need to leave the party. He is young and a good orator. The party is built on an ideology and all believing in this ideology should make party strong,” Kharge said, according to ANI.
“I told him that personal gains and losses are there in everyone's life. You have been MP for four times and held many posts, that's why it is not right to leave. Still, he didn't listen to anyone and left the party by putting his grievances forward,” Kharge added.
Silent Message From Rahul Gandhi
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi retweeted an old Twitter post from December 2018, which shows Gandhi with Scindia on his right and Kamal Nath on his left. The post was accompanied by a famous quote by Leo Tolstoy.
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time,” Gandhi had tweeted on 13 December, 2018.
In another tweet, Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "destabilising" the elected Congress government in Madhya Pradesh.
Rajasthan Congress chief and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot termed the development unfortunate, saying he wished things could have been fixed within the party "collaboratively".
No Madhya Pradesh-Like Situation in Maharashtra: Sharad Pawar
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who quit the party to join the BJP, had sought "quick rehabilitation" after losing the Lok Sabha poll, PTI reported.
Asked if the Congress is to be blamed for the imminent fall of the Kamal Nath government, Pawar said the party has a “good and capable leadership”.
On the impact of Scindia's exit on the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh, Pawar said, "Some people have confidence in the capacity of Kamal Nath and feel a miracle can happen."
"It will be known in the next one or two days if it (miracle by Kamal Nath) will happen.I don't know the structure of Madhya Pradesh Assembly, but if there was a dialogue with "Raja Saheb" (Scindia), this situation wouldn't have arisen," Pawar said, according to PTI.
“He (Scindia) wanted to be given new responsibilities after his defeat in the Lok Sabha elections (last year). But this is not the Congress’ culture and it is not easy,” he said.
The NCP chief also ruled out a Madhya Pradesh-like political drama in Maharashtra, saying the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena-NCP- Congress alliance government is doing "very well" in the state.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI.)
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