Jyotiraditya Scindia could get the "first preference" for Chief Ministership of Madhya Pradesh if Congress regains power after ten long years, a senior party leader said today.
The leader, who declined to be identified, said there has been a convention in the party that the leader who is made the head of the campaign committee in the polls, gets the "first preference" to become the Chief Minister if he ensures victory.
While Congress has not formally made anyone its CM candidate, the party is giving enough indications that 42-year-old Scindia is being projected for the top job.
Faction-ridden Congress is out in political wilderness in the state since 2003 when it lost power after a ten-year rule by Chief Minister Digvijay Singh. Assembly elections in the state are due in the next two months.
Scindia was recenlty made the chairman of Congress campaign committee for assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh. While state CLP leader Ajay Singh, son of Arjun Singh, has been made the head of the Chargesheet Drafting Committee against the BJP government, PCC Chief Kantilal Bhuria is heading the Election Committee in the state.
Scindia, the scion of the royal Scindia family of Gwalior and son of Congress leader Madhav Rao Scindia, is a three-time MP from Guna. The Harvard graduate, who is Union Minister of State for Power, was first elected to Lok Sabha in 2002, months after the death of his father in a helicopter crash.
During a number of meetings in AICC, party Vice President Rahul Gandhi had been laying great emphasis for party leaders projecting a united face in the BJP-ruled state.
Congress sources say some sort of cohesiveness has been achieved and the party is hopeful of putting up a united fight in Madhya Pradesh this time.
