‘There is pro-incumbency...people see that BJP has transformed their lives'

Civil aviation minister and BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia has addressed over 100 rallies in 60 assembly seats, and aims to cover more than 100 assembly segments by the time he is done ahead of the November 17 Madhya Pradesh assembly polls. In the middle of his whirlwind campaign tour, he spoke to Chetan Chauhan and Ranjan on a range of issues including why he left the Congress in 2020 with 22 MLAs leading to fall of the Kamal Nath-led government, the Congress’s Hindutva plank in MP, the BJP’s decision to field seven MPs including three union ministers and not declaring a chief ministerial candidate for the first time since 2008. Edited excerpts.

What is the difference between the 2018 and 2023 elections?

The first point is the development agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the transition of Madhya Pradesh from a Bimaru state to a progressive one. In 2018, when I was part of the Congress party, it was thought that we could better that. Unfortunately, what resulted in the 15-month-long government was pure nepotism, favouritism and corruption. None of the promises were adhered to; people wanted change. The change that came in 2020 resulted in tremendous development in terms of roads, bridges, irrigation projects, and airports across the length and breadth of MP. Social welfare projects such as Ladli Behna scheme were brought in.

Due to the development work of the BJP for 18 years, MP is heading towards hitting the highest points on social welfare indicators, as compared to the nadir to which it had fallen to prior to 2003 (when the Congress was in power).

The BJP has been power for 18 years and people say there is anti-incumbency.

Let me give you my own experience of directly being in politics for 20 years and indirectly for another 20 years. If you look for a characterisation of anti-incumbency , it is when leaders of the ruling party go to public meetings, people are upset and they don’t respond t and end up hooting you. That is the first character.

The second characteristic is evident in election results. That party against whom anti-incumbency is there is erased in people’s memory. The lucid and clear example of this is the experience of the Congress in the 2003 MP assembly elections . It was decimated and ended up with 37 out of 230 seats in the state assembly. That is called anti-incumbency.