Outgoing Congress parliamentarian from Guna lok Sabha constituency Jyotiraditya Scindia is still the Maharaj in this region and now he is facing an uphill task to preserve his family’s royal legacy here in the general elections.
Scindia’s major challenge comes from former Bajrang Dal president and BJP candidate Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, who has been rallying against the royal family here for the past two decades. The Agra-Mumbai highway that touches Guna constituency reflects stiff political battle. Whether it’s the major intersections or the walls of kuccha houses at villages of Guna town, an ubiquitous poster war between the Congress and the BJP is quite evident.
Scindia claims to have carried out development projects worth Rs 9,000 crore in the constituency. Representing this constituency in the lok Sabha for the last 12 years, Scindia is also bragging about the developmental works initiated during his late father Madhavrao Scindia’s tenure as an MP. On the other hand, Pawaiya, who won from the Gwalior lok Sabha constituency in 1999, is brusquely targeting the aura and wide scale repute of the royal family in Guna.
It is also whispered in the political circles that Madhavrao Scindia had shifted from Gwalior constituency to Guna because of thin margin of his victory over Pawaiya in 1998. Trying to shape the general elections as a battle between the Maharaj and an easily accessible leader, Pawaiya is also relying on the NaMo wave to obliterate the royal family hegemony in Guna.
Recently, this wheat-producing region had to suffer the brunt of hailstorm, which spoiled the crops to a great extent. This has now become a major political issue in the rural as well as urban areas of the Guna. Protesting over State Government’s inability to provide compensation to the farmers, Jyotiraditya Scindia is campaigning here with a black band tied on his arm.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other senior BJP leaders are accusing the Central Government of adopting discriminatory behaviour with Madhya Pradesh. In the Assembly elections last year, the Congress won five seats, while BJP registered victory on three seats in this region. Undercurrents of change can be sensed in Guna these days as 11 candidates are in the fray for the lok Sabha battle here. Even the royal family has seemed to take cognisance of the changing political State of affairs in Guna, which has in past elected Raj Mata Vijayraje Scindia and Madhavrao Scindia as its representatives in the lok Sabha.
Therefore, not only Mata Madhaviraje Scindia but his wife and young son Maharyaman are also campaigning for him on the tumbledown roads in the constituency. The four Assembly seats in Guna boast of around three lakh youth voters, which can play a major role in deciding the fate of candidate. Keeping reputation and respect of the royal family, Shivpuri legislator Yashodhara Raje is keeping distance from electoral campaigning.