K P Yadav: The one who defeated the 'Maharaja'

The 2019 poll results not just sprung many surprises but also made a 57-year old fantasy come true.

In the 1962 Lok Sabha election to the Gwalior seat, one of the great socialist thinkers, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, fielded a woman from the sweeper community named Sukhobai against dowager of the erstwhile Gwalior state, Vijayaraje Scindia.

The ‘Rani versus Mehtarani’ contest had then drew a nationwide attention.

Through this, Dr Lohia wanted to emphasise the primacy of independent India's nascent democracy over the age-old royalty.

But the result was a triumph of the royalty.

And since then three generations of the Scindia family— Vijayaraje, her daughter Yashodhara, son Madhavrao and grandson Jyotiraditya— remained undefeated in successive elections in their two bastions of Gwalior and Guna.

Thinks changed in 2019 when the Modi wave finally caused the Scindia bastion to fall.

What was a fantasy for Sukhobai became a reality for BJP candidate Krishna Pal Yadav, who wrested the Guna seat from 4-time MP Jyotiraditya Scindia by the margin of over 1.25 lakh votes.

What must have been more galling for the trounced Congress candidate is that the winner was his ardent acolyte till two years ago.

Dr K P Yadav’s journey from deserting the “Maharaj” to landing a BJP ticket to finally winning the Guna seat reads like a Bollywood pot-boiler.

A medical practitioner by profession, Dr K P Yadav and Jyotiraditya are childhood chums. Hailing from Ashok Nagar town, the Yadav family has been staunchly loyal to the Scindias. K P Yadav’s father was district Congress president and was known to be close to the late Madhavrao Scindia .

Till they fell apart, Jyotiraditya Scindia used to regard K P Yadav a useful strategist in successive elections from 2002. K P Yadav wields considerable influence over his community, which has over 2 lakh voters in the Guna.

Jyotiraditya had even made K P Yadav his MP Representative for Ashok Nagar. He was also an office bearer in the ‘Srimant Jyotiraditya fans club’ and used to mobilise youths in favour of the Congress MP.

However, the closeness between the two was more akin to a royal and his trusted subject, then two old colleagues of the same age.

This is not unusual in Guna-Gwalior region where Jyotiraditya is known for his impervious and regal demeanour.

K P Yadav began to foresee for himself a bigger role than just a Scindia lackey after he opened a hospital in Ashok Nagar in 2015. Success of the hospital kindled political ambition in him.

As the luck would have it, Mungawali Assembly seat in Guna fell vacant due to death of the Congress MLA Mahendra Singh Kalukheda. K P Yadav lobbied hard for nomination from the seat but Jyotiraditya disappointed him.

The seat went to another Scindia loyalist, who won in February 2017 a by-election.

Although deeply disappointed, K P Yadav did not immediately desert his political mentor. He was apparently looking for an opportune time to strike.

That opportunity came his way when he got to meet BJP national president Amit Shah through some party leaders of Gwalior region the previous year.

K P Yadav reportedly urged Shah to bless him as he could defeat the "Maharaj".

Amit Shah got the applicant’s claim verified through his network in Guna and finally gave K P Yadav a go ahead to take on Jyotiraditya.

K P Yadav entered in the fray somewhat diffident because opposite him was his one-time political mentor.

What provided impetus to the BJP campaign was Scindia’s wife Priyadarshani Raje’s gratuitous remark that "those who used to be in queue for selfie with Maharaj are dreaming about defeating him".

The remark was viewed as smacking by the royal arrogance and condescending.

The rest, as they say, is history.