With Madhya Pradesh slated to go for Assembly elections later this year, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia appears to be the front-runner for the post of Chief Minister, if Congress emerges victorious.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, considered close to the party high command, gave fresh hint at Scindia's potential candidacy last week. "I have no doubt in my mind that Scindia is the front-runner for the post of Chief Minister if the party wins this year's Assembly elections," Singh said recently while talking to reporters in Gwalior.
However, Singh, former Chief Minister said that Scindia could not be declared as the chief ministerial candidate as the Congress did not have a tradition of doing so.
later, Scindia said at Ashoknagar that he was not in the race for the post. "I am an ordinary worker of the Congress and I do not think I am in the race for the chief ministership," Scindia had said.
Some supporters of Scindia had earlier gone to New Delhi to plead his case with the party high command. But they were reportedly told that the Assembly polls would be held with Kantilal Bhuria as State Congress chief and Ajay Singh as the leader of Opposition in the State Assembly.
Scindia had a few months back said that Bhuria must become the Chief Minister, if Congress wins the Assembly elections.
The party received a shot in the arm by winning the Karnataka Assembly elections and leaders have already started saying that the Karnataka results are an indication that BJP governments in various states were on their way out.
They maintain that the "large-scale corruption under BJP governments" has left the common man dissatisfied with the party.
However, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the Karnataka results would have no impact on the State.
"I am unfazed by the results of Karanataka Assembly elections and confident that it will not have any impact on Madhya Pradesh polls," Chouhan said after the elections results were declared in Karnataka on Wednesday.