Jyotiraditya Scindia resigns from Congress

In a massive political development that comes as a setback for Congress, one of its senior leaders and former MP, Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned from the primary membership of Congress party on March 10.

Earlier, Scindia had - along with Home Minister Amit Shah - met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter’s residence in the national capital.

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— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) March 10, 2020

In his resignation letter addressed to interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Scindia wrote that this is a path that has been "drawing itself out over the last year", alluding to the infighting within the party's state unit.

"While my aim and purpose remain the same as it has always been from the very beginning, to serve the people of my state and country, I believe I am unable to do this anymore within this party," Scindia has said in his letter, adding that in order to "reflect and realise the aspirations of my people and my workers I believe it is best that I now look ahead at a fresh start".

Minutes after the development, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal released a brief statement saying that the party's interim chief, Sonia Gandhi, has "approved the explusion" of Jyotiraditya Scindia from Congress "with immediate effect for anti-party activities".

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The development comes amid high political drama in the state ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections on March 26 and the Budget session of the Assembly scheduled for March 16.

Earlier on March 9, 17 MLAs - reportedly loyal to Scindia - were flown to Bengaluru in Karnataka where the BJP is in power.

Reports then suggested that this was a part of the internal tussle within the Congress' Madhya Pradesh unit, where tensions between the Scindia and Chief Minister Kamal Nath faction had been simmering ever since the formation of the government in 2018.

The Congress holds a thin majority in the 230-member Assembly with its own 114 MLAs and support of two legislators of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), one of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and four independents.

The BJP has 107 legislators while two seats are vacant.

Who is Jyotiraditya Scindia? Why is this development important?

Rumblings within the state Congress unit were on for some time before the crisis blew out in the open, with legislators and ministers loyal to Scindia indicating that the Kamal Nath government will "face crisis" if he is neglected and another saying that he will be the first to support Scindia's new party, if he decides to float it.

Jyotiraditya is the last scion of the Scindia family of Marathas which ruled the Gwalior state in pre-independent central-India.

His grandmother Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia was once a prominent figure in the Jana Sangh.

Jyotiraditya was born on January 1, 1971 in Bombay (now Mumbai) to Madhavrao Scindia and Madhavi Raje Scindia. He studied at Campion School in the city before being sent to The Doon School in Dehradun.

He pursued Economics at Harvard University from where he graduated in 1993. In 2001, he completed his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also roughed it out with various jobs with Merryl Lynch; the UN in New York; Morgan Stanley in New York, Hong Kong and Mumbai.

He jumped into politics after his father’s demise. In 2002, he won the bypoll for the Guna Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh, earlier held by his father. He was re-elected from Guna in the 2004 Lok Sabha election.

In 2007, Jyotiraditya was inducted into the Manmohan Singh cabinet as the Minister of State (MoS) for Communications and Information Technology. He was re-elected in 2009 and appointed as the MoS for Commerce and Industry. In 2012, he was made MoS for Power with independent charge.