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New leadership is not given chance in Congress, says Jyotiraditya Scindia after joining BJP

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New Delhi, Mar 11: Former senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday joined the BJP in the presence of party president JP Nadda, pushing the 15-month-old Kamal Nath government to the brink of collapse. The ceremony took place at the BJP headquarters in Delhi where the former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia was inducted into the saffron party.

Jyotiraditya Scindia joins BJP fulfils grandmother Vijaya Rajes wish

JP Nadda expressed happiness over Jyotiraditya Scindia joining BJP, remembers his grandmother and party's co-founder late Vijaya Raje Scindia.

Speaking to media, Scindia said,''Thanks JP Nadda, PM Modi and Amit Shah. Two dates have been crucial in my life, first, the day I lost my father and second, March 10, his birth anniversary, when I took a decision to change the course of my life.''

''New leadership was not given a chance in the Congress, my aim has always been to serve people and politics only a means to fulfill that. I was hurt and distressed as I was not able to serve people in my previous organisation, Congress is in denial of reality, it has changed from the party it used to be,'' Scindia further said.

In a major setback to the Congress, Scindia, one of its senior leaders, had earlier resigned from the party, saying it was time for him to move on.

He is likely to be sent to the Rajya Sabha, where he may get a berth in the Union cabinet if his revolt against the Congress leads to the fall of the Madhya Pradesh government, as the BJP expects.

The Congress also announced his expulsion for "anti-party activities" as the crisis looming over the Madhya Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Kamal Nath deepened.

The 49-year-old leader was long upset with the Congress as he believes that Nath and Digvijaya Singh, another party satrap in the state, were working in tandem to marginalise him.

At least 22 Congress MLAs, many of whom loyal to him, have resigned to reduce the ruling Congress in the state to a minority.

While the Congress, which was voted to power in the state after 15 years in 2018, has 114 MLAs, the BJP has 107 legislators in the 230-member assembly.

Four Independent MLAs, two lawmakers of the Bahujan Samaj Party and one Samajwadi Party legislator are supporting the Congress-led government.

As many as 17 MLAs close to Scindia went incommunicado on Monday, with most of them believed to be camping in Bengaluru.

Election for three Rajya Sabha seats from the state is slated for March 26. Both the Congress and the BJP are sure to win one seat each, and the changing dynamics in the state politics means that the saffron party may eye to win the third seat.

The Scindia family is one of the most distinguished political dynasties in the country and Jyotiraditya Scindia's decision has snapped its decades long ties with the Congress.

His two aunts, Vasundhara Raje and Yashidhat Raje, are already in the BJP with the former serving as the Rajasthan chief minister for 10 years.

His father Madhavrao Scindia had also started his political innings as an MP of the Jana Sangh, the earlier avatar of the BJP, in 1971 but joined the Congress later.

His grandmother Vijayaraje Scindia had begun his political career as a Congress MP in 1957 and then joined the Swatantrata Party, now defunct, before she moved to the Jana Sangh and emerged as a leading hardline ideologue of the party.

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