He didn’t get loyalists berths in the Chouhan Cabinet on his own. BJP acted to stop Cong rebels from flocking back home

He may have been able to get 11 of his loyalists appointed as Ministers in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan Government in Madhya Pradesh and scream “Tiger zinda hai” — a layered reference to his past, him being the royal scion of a State which prides in the big cat, a dig at the Congress and a smart pick-up of a punchline much used by the Chief Minister himself to remind everybody, including Jyotiraditya Scindia himself, why an old horse still matters. But he may still not be happy. Scindia was unhappy in the Congress despite being part of the coterie around its crown prince, who had promised him a revamp in the party and a peerage that would weed out the deadwood, revive the cadres and corner the hawkish old guard who didn’t believe in new fangled ideas. Despite working hard for the victory of the party in his home State, he was overlooked as Chief Minister material as the prized post went to the tried and tested Kamal Nath. Instead he was given general secretaryship of Uttar Pradesh during the Lok Sabha polls, working for which cost him his own bastion as he was unable to justify his relevance among his constituents who had been loyal to him courtesy his family legacy. So he took some of them and joined the BJP, hitting the Congress where it hurt the most. His grandmother and aunts anyway had swung right a long, long time ago, so his move didn’t seem too far off his DNA. Scindia’s rebellion and crossover with 22 MLAs sounded the death knell of the Kamal Nath government and paved the way for BJP’s return to power. But the BJP didn’t reward him adequately for the same reasons as the Congress; there were too many local strongmen around who had enough reason to claim their pound of flesh and whose heft mattered more in heartland politics. The BJP, which has an ideological resonance across a State that is the crucible of Hindutva and where its long-range grassroots warrior Chouhan scripted a success story for 15 long years, did not humour Scindia’s royal lineage either. All he got was a Rajya Sabha membership and a Union Ministry but with no stakes in the State Government, something which he could apportion among his loyalists who jumped ship with him, he was left with no standing whatsoever. Apart from being a prize catch for the BJP simply because he was close to Rahul Gandhi, he has been of little functional use to the former. It was only when his supporters began streaming back to the Congress that the BJP realised it needed to humour Scindia and avoid the PR embarrassment of him resigning too. He may now have reason to hold his flock together but he will still be unhappy because his worth to both the Congress and the BJP will be circumscribed by his baggage. One which compelled former Chief Minister Kamal Nath to wonder if a toothless Scindia was a “paper” or a “circus” tiger.

Ideologically, too, Scindia may not find much of a rehabilitation in the BJP as one of his staunchest supporters and former Sewa Dal state president Satyndra Yadav claimed he was feeling suffocated and would soon return to the Congress. In fact, Kamal Nath may no longer be the Chief Minister but is using his organisational prowess to get the rebels back into his fold. He is even hyping up their return, saying how they were misfits in the BJP scheme of things, clearly exposing Scindia as a leader who couldn’t leverage their political worth. Nath even got back Balendu Shukla, who had joined the BJP in 2009 after differences with Scindia. Besides, for all his claims to legacy, he does not have absolute control over the crucial Gwalior-Chambal region, something that matters in assessing one’s political worth in MP. The absence of Scindia in BJP posters for bypolls was further confirmation of the drift theory. Besides, the state BJP, bred on cadre performance and commitment, will never refer to him as “Maharaj” or “Srimant,” an honour he was wrongfully allowed in the Congress by virtue of antiquated entitlements. Frankly, the BJP really did not need Scindia as badly as the latter needed the party. His net worth is unchanged. If he really does want to rescue his political career yet, then he must work the ground and show the numbers for it. If he really wanted to prove a point earlier, he should have floated an independent state outfit, something which wouldn’t have guaranteed him a Central role but would have kept his credibility intact on home ground and allowed him to be kingmaker at least. Defections are too easy, convenient and stereotypical. Scindia must realise that he is tied down in too many image traps.