‘Had Rahul been concerned the same way as he is now,' Scindia snaps at Congress leader

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s recent jibe at Jyotiraditya Scindia for becoming a “backbencher” in the BJP and not waiting for his turn to become the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh has prompted a blunt reply from the ‘maharaja’, who switched loyalties last year.

“It would have been a different situation had Rahul Gandhi been concerned the same way as he is now, when I was in the Congress,” news agency ANI quoted Scindia as saying.

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“I don’t wish to comment as I have maintained a certain level in the past one year and have always stood above that level,” Scindia told reporters in Parliament.

Following months of speculations, Scindia quit the Congress during lockdown in March last year, and was followed by several loyal MLAs, which led to the collapse of the Kamal Nath government and the return of the BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in MP.

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On Monday (March 8), Gandhi remembered his one-time close associate while addressing a meeting of the Youth Wing of the Congress. “He [Scindia] would have become the chief minister had he stayed with Congress but has become a backbencher in the BJP. 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,” he said.

The Congress MP, according to sources quoted by ANI, also said, “Write it down, he will never become chief minister there. He will have to come back here for that.”