BJP poll hoardings insult Scindia again

Bhopal

Bhopal, June 17 (IANS) Former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, whose absence from the BJP hoardings made news just a week ago, has been subjected to more humiliation by his new party.

Campaign managers are ensuring that the insults that forced him to leave the Congress after 18 politically prosperous years are heaped again in the BJP.

The royal scion from Gwalior reappears on the new posters that exhort supporters to march to Sanwer to canvass for Tulsiram Silawat, a staunch follower of Scindia. The placement of his image would, however, leave Scindia swallowing his pride.

He would rather be missing from the billboards than sharing space with pigmies. Kailash Vijayvargiya, Union Home Minister Amit Shah's point person and former rival of Scindia in the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association battles, dominates the hoarding with the byelection candidate Silawat and a local office-bearer.

He finds himself at the bottom corner with Vijayvargiya's son Akash, whose sole claim to fame came from hitting a civic official with cricket bat. Has the clock been set 20 years back for Scindia?

The poster gives the Congress an opportunity to take a dig at Scindia's status. Oddly enough, an old picture of Scindia features on the hoarding. The scarf around his neck is that of the Congress.

"Those who fought for honour and said principles can't be sacrificed, find their honour being shredded to smithereens day after day," tweeted Congress spokesperson Narender Saluja.

"He should have at least dropped the Congress scarf," Saluja taunted.

Even as Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan stands by Scindia, the other senior BJP leaders would spare no effort to embarrass the duo.

Perceived differences between the BJP leaders, side-lined after the arrival of 22 Congress members, and others who got plum positions in the party or the government, are also responsible for the bitterness.

There is also a keen rivalry between Chouhan and Narottam Mishra. Though Chouhan has gone an extra mile to placate Mishra, the other Chambal-Gwalior leaders like Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya and Narendra Singh Tomar, who are uncomfortable over Mishra's rising expectations, would draw vicarious pleasure out of Scindia's discomfiture.

Scindia supporters are labelled ‘bikaau' (saleable) while the loyal BJP workers are being called ‘tikaau' (durable). The Sanwer hoardings reflect the party mood. The missing pictures of Scindia have returned In Gwalior hoardings, but the controversy rages on.

The BJP meeting to strategise for the Rajya Sabha polling that got underway on Wednesday evening continued till late in the night. The result would have a bearing on the by-elections.