Royal quick fix?

The Congress has hit the skids. First it was Kerala. The Congress alliance snatched power from the Communists, but the wafer-thin majority must have rattled the high command. The party could manage only  23 out of the 140 seats. Then came the 2012 Assembly elections with its complement of setbacks in UP, Punjab, Goa and even Uttarakhand, where the party barely managed to hang on to power.

The news from Andhra Pradesh is no less worrisome. Infighting and the Telangana issue, not to mention the uncontrollable Jagan, have crippled the government to such an extent that no development work is happening in the state. Only a hare-brained punter would put money on the party retaining power there.

Things are no different in Madhya Pradesh. It would be an understatement to say that the last decade has been dismal for the Congress in the state. For close to ten years the party’s state leaders have been struggling to find answers for many upsetting questions.

The reasons for this sorry state of affairs are innumerable, some curable others incurable. For some time now, the state has ceased to have leaders who live up to the expectations of the common man. It is  well known that there is no proper coordination among the grassroots leaders and workers due to a divided leadership.

There are very few partymen who are convinced of the PCC chief Kantilal Bhuria’s ability to bring about unity in the party. His only credential seems to be the fact that he is a tribal leader. Then there are leaders like Ajay Singh, Rajmani Patel, Jaivardhan Singh, Sajjan Singh Verma and Bala Bachchan, all capable of contributing substantially to the party’s fortunes but seem to be more bent on boosting individual stocks instead of the party’s.

Add to this the overbearing presence of Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh, the picture is not all that rosy. Finally, there is the Shivraj Singh Chauhan factor. The Madhya Pradesh CM may not be a match for the ‘in-your-face’ Modi, may not possess the charm of an Arun Jaitley or the magnetism of a Sushma Swaraj, but it’s exactly these ostensible ‘flaws’ that he is deftly using to his advantage. One of his biggest attributes is that he is modest and unassertive. This enables him to connect with the masses. It is no state secret that the Congress is still undecided as to who would be an earnest challenger to the unpretentious, yet enterprising Shivraj.

Against this backdrop, speculation is gaining ground that Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of State for Industries and Commerce, will be projected as the party’s chief ministerial candidate. Given the recent increase in the frequency of his visits to the state, it could be assumed that he has already received some sort of indication from 10 Janpath.

Is Scindia the right candidate? His greatest attribute is his clean image. That he remained unscathed amid allegations of corruption in the 2G spectrum allocation while he was the telecom minister says a lot about his integrity. He could also be a big influence among the youth who undoubtedly constitute a large section of the electorate. He is perceived to be more coherent and broad-minded than some of the other state leaders and is known to be a workaholic who is either in the office or among people for almost 18 hours a day. It also goes without saying that he commands great support in Gwalior, Chambal region and the Malwa area.

More than the Chambal region, the party would be hoping that he can bring  Malwa back into the party fold. Till 2003 it was a Congress bastion but gradually, BJP succeeded in weaning away a large chunk of the Adivasi and tribal population, largely through the services of the RSS, spearheaded by Sunil Joshi.

If Scindia is indeed put in charge of the state, wresting power from an ostensibly popular CM would be much more testing than winning a parliamentary seat from Guna, a constituency his father nurtured. His immediate task would be to bring some semblance of unity among the party factions. His edgy relationship with some Congress leaders, including Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh could be a big deterrent here, so things will largely depend on whether he is given given a free hand or not.