Jyotiraditya Scindia drops Congress from bio

Bhopal: Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on November 25 dropped his party name in his Twitter bio and changed it to “public servant and cricket enthusiast”, bringing to surface speculations of a rift in the party in Madhya Pradesh.

His previous bio on the micro-blogging site read: “Former Member of Parliament, Guna (2002-2007) | Former Minister for Power (I/C); MoS Communication Industry; MoS Communications, IT and Post”. The move comes close on the heels of an intense power tussle going on in the Congress unit of Madhya Pradesh, where Scindia is apparently feeling sidelined as camps belonging to chief minister Kamal Nath and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh are calling the shots. For the past few months, Scindia was seen as a frontrunner for the post of PCC chief but due to a lack of consensus, the party eventually put the appointment on the back burner.

His stature as a leader was dented considerably following the Congress’ shocking defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, where Scindia lost from his home turf Guna. Political tensions have been brewing in the party with Scindia often going against the party line and questioning his own government by casting aspersions on the contentious farm loan waiver scheme. The former MP was appointed by the party as in-charge of Maharashtra ahead of assembly elections in the state, but he chose to concentrate on his home turf of Gwalior and Chambal instead.