Scindia could have become CM with Congress, but is now a backbencher in BJP: Rahul Gandhi

(This story originally appeared in on Mar 08, 2021)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia could have become chief minister with the party but has become a backbencher in the BJP.

Speaking to the Youth Wing workers of the party, Gandhi said, “He (Scindia) would have become the chief minister had he stayed with Congress but Scindia has become a backbencher in the BJP.”

The former Congress president said Scindia had the option to strengthen the organisation by working with Congress workers. “I told him – one day you will become the chief minister. But he chose another route,” Gandhi said.

Sources further informed that Gandhi further said, “Write it down, he will never become chief minister there. He will have to come back here for that.”

“Congress is like a sea. Here everyone following the ideology of the party are welcome. And those who do not follow the ideology of the party can leave anytime,” a source quoted Gandhi as saying on the question of turncoats by a party leader.

He also instructed the youth party workers to fight the ideology of RSS and not be afraid of anyone.

Scindia had resigned from the Congress party and joined the BJP in March last year. He had lost the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to KP Singh Yadav despite contesting from his traditional seat of Guna, which was considered a family bastion of the Scindias in Madhya Pradesh.

In his resignation letter dated March 9, he said he was unable to work in the party anymore and suggests that Sonia Gandhi was aware of his difficulties for the past year.

More than 20 MLAs supporting him also left the Congress, leading to the collapse of the the Kamal Nath government in March following which the BJP returned to power in the state.

He was later elected as the BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.

(With ANI inputs)