Digvijaya Singh: Any politician from the state’s political spectrum can attest that it is difficult to escape the gravitational attraction of the late Digvijaya Singh, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. Jaivardhan Singh can say, at least in that regard, that he has emerged from his father’s shadow and developed his own personality. Jaivardhan, a two-time MLA, is secretly attacking the BJP strongholds of Gwalior-Chambal and Malwa, the hangout of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and his supporters, as his father quietly tours the state, visiting district-level Congress people and taking on the current BJP administration.
Winning Back Scindia Supporters and Challenging His Significance
Jaivardhan recently made headlines for his part in winning back two Scindia supporters for the Congress. This included Yadvendra Singh Yadav, who joined the Congress in March, and Baijnath Singh Yadav, who entered the party on June 14 while organising a rally of 700 vehicles in Bhopal. On June 21, Jaivardhan baited Scindia by challenging his continued significance inside the BJP and casting doubt on the likelihood that the ruling party would field Scindia’s supporters who joined him in his three-year defection. Jaivardhan says that his father, a former master of the game, never intended him to pursue a career in politics. Jaivardhan received his education at Doon School and the Shri Ram College of Commerce, both of which are part of Delhi University. He then worked there for four years as a senior analyst. He claims that Digvijaya discouraged him when he revealed his political aspirations to him.
The Young Political Force Seeking Revenge Against Scindia’s Insurrection
Since then, a lot has changed in the state that Digvijaya left behind in favour of the bigger national stage, ostensibly to make room for his son. With only 26 years old at the time, Jaivardhan won the Raghogarh seat as the state’s MLA in 2013 by a margin of 59,000 votes, still a state record. Jaivardhan joined Kamal Nath’s Cabinet in 2018 after winning reelection by 45,000 votes. He worked on programmes to improve access to drinking water in rural communities and created a programme to give e-scooters to unemployed women in urban areas while serving as Minister for Urban Development and Housing. The notoriously fractious Congress veterans appear to have patched things up as another election approaches, with Digvijaya supporting Kamal Nath as the candidate for chief minister. And now it seems that Jaivardhan’s job is to exact revenge on Scindia, who was once viewed as Kamal Nath and Digvijaya’s opponent, for his insurrection in 2020 that toppled the Kamal Nath administration. Jaivardhan met the party’s goals by helping the Congress win the Assembly seats in Agar and Biaro at the state’s 2020 by-elections. “As a result of such accomplishment, I was given management of the Malwa and Gwalior-Chambal belts. Horse-trading does have its effects, and I believe that people are tired of living under a fear-based system,” he argues.
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Asserts Internal Conflicts and BJP’s Local Leaders Diminished Scindia’s Influence
Regarding claims that he was “luring” Scindia supporters back, he responds, “Absolutely not. They are fighting among one another. In the past, Scindia held a significant amount of influence among the Congress in the Gwalior-Chambal region. He doesn’t have the same uncontested control as before because the BJP has powerful local leaders like Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar, state Home Minister Narottam Mishra, and BJP state president V D Sharma. Watch how Scindia’s victim, K P Yadav, assaults him in public. Conflict had to happen. BJP officials were overthrown by his own supporters, who are currently in the same party. The 36-year-old also asserts that Digvijaya advised him to embark on a yatra similar to Rahul’s after realising that he was serious about politics. Jaivardhan was instructed by Digvijaya to “visit villages, get to know the people on your own, and don’t depend on me.” Jaivardhan returned to India in 2013 and embarked on a padayatra, visiting over 150 villages, after earning a master’s degree in public administration and development practise from Columbia University. Jaivardhan is disparaged by the BJP as “the son of a raja” and a “dynast” at a time when the nation has rejected dynastic politics.
Emphasizing Accountability and Service to the People
Jaivardhan responds, “Since 2018, my father has not visited my constituency. There, he hasn’t delivered a single speech. In his final statement, he urged the audience to reject my candidature if I did not do well. In a democracy, we are the people’s obedient servants, and the people are the Raja. I wasn’t nominated; I was elected. The credibility there is. Then again, his opponents point to a speech from last month. The former member of the Dumaria royal dynasty in Bihar, Jaivardhan, and his wife Sreejamya Shahi, had a son. The six-year-old made his first public speech in Raghogarh in May.
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