A Huge Change In Favour Of Congress In All Five States: Scindia

With elections round the corner, senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia tells Outlook about his party’s winning possibilities, its strained ties with the BSP and the road ahead for general elections 2019.

Now that the election dates are announced, are you confident of winning Madhya Pradesh?

There’s a huge change towards the congress in all five states. We are confident that we will form the government in Madhya Pradesh on December 11 and we are working with a strategy.

BSP supremo Mayawati accused Congress of being ‘casteist’ and not being accommodative. Does Mayawati’s decision to go solo affect your prospects in the state?

Every party has a right to take its own decisions. But it was our effort to ally with the BSP. I don’t know the definition of being large-hearted. We tried to be as accommodative as we can. All parties have a realistic assessment of their strength and weaknesses. Certainly, seats in which you have a strong presence are given to you and vice versa.

How will it affect the grand alliance ahead of general elections 2019? What will be the repercussions?

State elections are very different from national elections. One is not the continuation of the other. If we are able to make an alliance in the state and in the centre, it’s great. If you are not able to do it in the state, that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it in the centre. One is not dependent on the other. It doesn’t mean that it won’t work out for grand alliance in Lok Sabha. For that again, we will try and make sure it works.

After the BSP, Samajwadi Party also walked out?

I don’t want to use the word walking out. You have certain expectations, and I have certain expectations. Sometimes expectations fail to have a meeting point, at which point one is free to take one’s own independent decisions. It’s like a partnership. Sometimes a partnership fructifies into a venture and sometimes it doesn’t. It was our effort to make it work, but it didn’t. It’s a win-win for us. That doesn’t mean that it won’t happen at the national level.

Can we call it Congress’ failure to stitch up an alliance?

In Karnataka, we have a government. There are teething troubles when you form a new partnership. But it doesn’t mean that it won’t survive. In politics, every day is a new day. It’s too early to say about Maharashtra. The polls are away and we will start working soon.