Priyadarshini Scindia: The force behind Jyotiraditya Scindia\'s poll campaign

Priyadarshini Scindia: The force behind Jyotiraditya Scindia's poll campaign

Press Trust of India  |  Bhopal 

Behind every successful man is a woman.

Guna, considered the pocket borough of the Scindias -- the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior, was one of the only two seats that the managed to bag in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in

The other seat won by the party was Chhindwara.

Priyadarshini started campaigning in February, even before the announced the parliamentary polls, giving Jyotiraditya a head start over his rivals.

The was appointed the All India Committee in-charge for western earlier this year.

With her husband pre-occupied with party affairs in the northern state, Priyadarshini took charge. She has been reaching out to a cross-section of voters, listening to their woes and telling them about the work done by their

Her close involvement with the campaign even triggered speculation that she may be formally entering this year.

Asked about the conjecture, state Congress Pankaj Chaturvedi, known to be close to Jyotiraditya Scindia, told PTI, "This is to be decided by the Scindia family and But after seeing her interaction and instant connection with local party workers and common citizens at large, I can certainly say that has got a leader."

Chaturvedi said has been interacting closely with voters.

"Priyadarshini ji has been visiting an average of 10-12 villages on most weekdays since February and has reached out to almost every corner of parliamentary seat," he said.

"She collects information about the local problems and informs the people about the work done by Scindia ji. She has been interacting with different communities and social groups," he added.

In Assembly polls last year, did exceedingly well in Gwalior-Chambal region, considered a bastion of the Scindia family. However, its vote share in Guna was less than the BJP's.

The Congress bagged five of the eight assembly segments in Guna but it polled 16,000 votes less than the

In 2014, Scindia had won this seat with a margin of around 1 lakh votes.

Chaturvedi, however, does not attach much importance to this.

"The entry of Scindia ji in the electoral contest decisively tilted the scales in his favour. There is no significance of assembly poll results," he said.

The has fielded K P Yadav, a former who joined the saffron party earlier this year after being denied ticket for Mungaoli assembly bypoll.

exuded confidence that Scindia will not be able to retain the seat this time.

"Scindia has been representing Guna in Parliament for the past one-and-a-half decade, but did nothing for this region. Now people are asking for an account of his work," Sikarwar told

"Only (Narendra) Modi can save the country and people have started realising this now. Besides, there is huge impact of the development work carried out by the NDA government. People are going to vote to elect a nationalist government," he added.

Since 1952, members of the Scindia family have won 14 times from Guna seat.

first contested the bypoll from this constituency in 2002, following his father's death in a plane crash. He has held onto the seat ever since.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, May 09 2019. 12:16 IST