The appointment of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia as chairman of the State election campaign committee may give an opportunity to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for launching a campaign on the lines of 'Palace vs People'.
The BJP has decided to convene a high-level meeting in this regard at the party headquarters on September 10. After the appointment, there is a perception among Congress men that the State has been given a young leadership with clean image. His ease with both Hindi as well as English has also gone down well with the party men.
However, behind this there are lurking fears that Congress leaders are not willing to speak out in the open. The fear is that this has the potential to open up a campaign on 'Palace vs People' in the State during the Assembly elections. What appears intriguing is also the fact that on the one hand, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief is a tribal, and on the other a feudal lord is heading the election campaign committee. This has the potential to give 'Palace vs People' debate in a predominantly State.
During his ongoing Jan Ashirvad Yatra, Chouhan has been projecting himself as a common man and telling people that Congress is representative of rajas and maharajas. Besides, within the Congress party, Scindia is seen as man of likes and dislikes. Since, he is associated with the Gwalior royalty, there is a common perception that there is wide difference between him and the common people.
With this appointment, there is also resentment among the leader of Opposition Ajay Singh camp, because Singh held similar post during the last assembly elections held in 2008. late Jamuna Devi was the leader of the Opposition then. Singh supporters feel that he should have received this important post because he already has experience of the same. They are unable to find reply to the question as why he has been denied of important post this time.
Undoubtedly, Scindia has a charisma to pull crowd, but taking every faction along is a hilarious task and it is yet to be observed as how he does it.