Jyotiraditya Scindia likely to join BJP in presence of Nadda

PTI, Mar 11, 2020, 2:16 PM IST

New Delhi: A day after announcing his resignation from Congress, Jyotiraditya Scindia is likely to join BJP on Wednesday in the presence of the ruling party’s president JP Nadda.

According to sources, the BJP is likely to name him as one of its candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh and is also confident of forming the government in the state with his help as 22 MLAs including Scindia’s supporters have resigned from the state Assembly reducing the Kamal Nath government to a minority.

BJP’s media cell sent out a message saying an “eminent personality” will join the party in the presence of its president JP Nadda.

Peeved with his marginalization in the Congress, Scindia met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday and then the two leaders went to the prime minister’s residence where they held talks for over an hour.

Soon after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the disgruntled Madhya Pradesh Congress leader tendered his resignation to party president Sonia Gandhi saying it was time for him to move on.

Scindia took the decision to sever his ties with the Congress on the day of his father Madhavrao Scindia’s 75th birth anniversary.

Scindia, four-time MP, first got elected from Guna in Madhya Pradesh in 2002 after winning a by-election necessitated by his father’s demise. He was only 31 years old at that time.

He gradually made his way up the Congress ladder becoming Minister of State for Communications and IT in 2007 during the Congress-led UPA-1. In 2009, he became Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and in 2012 was appointed Minister of State for Power during UPA-2.

After the Congress lost the 2014 General Election, Sonia Gandhi named him the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha.

He is expected to be nominated by the BJP for Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh.