Jyotiraditya Scindia joins BJP after snapping ties with Congress

Former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. Picture/Twitter IANS

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a day after he ended his 18-years-old association with the Congress party. BJP president JP Nadda symbolically inducted Scindia into the party by offering him a party stole and a bouquet in front of the media at the BJP headquarters here.

The disgruntled four-time Congress MP reached the BJP headquarter at around 2.30 p.m. He met Nadda and other senior leaders and later faced the press along with Nadda and BJP vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe. Scindia had on Tuesday met Home Minister Amit Shah, who then took him to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence.

Scindia's resignation from the party, that triggered the resignation of 22 MLAs who are his loyalists, has left the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh in a turmoil. Articulate and charismatic, Scindia was Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology in the UPA-I government.

He was the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in the UPA-II government between 2009 and 2012. Scindia was Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Power between 2012 and 2014. He was a strong critic of the Narendra Modi government in its first term and articulated his concerns in the Lok Sabha.

Belonging to a political family, Scindia was first elected to Lok Sabha from Guna in 2002 after his father Madhavrao Scindia died in an airplane crash. Madhavrao Scindia was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1971 at the age of 26 and went on to win nine consecutive elections from the Gwalior and Guna constituencies.

Jyotirdaditya Scindia suffered a shock defeat from Guna parliamentary seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates