Amid communal overtones, a massive sex abuse case, and politicians jumping parties days and hours ahead of polls, a total of 12 turncoats will contest in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 7. Votes will be cast in 94 constituencies across 12 states. 

Out of the 12 defectors, four are in Madhya Pradesh, two in Maharashtra, and one each in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Uttar Pradesh. Gujarat, which is polling for the most seats at 26, has no defectors so far. There also are no turncoats in Goa, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir in phase three.

Among those who swapped jerseys mid-game, six are in the BJP-led NDA and six in the Congress-led INDIA bloc. But the hot seat is Madhya Pradesh’s Guna constituency, a stronghold of the Scindia family, where former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia is the BJP’s candidate against former BJP leader Rao Yadvendra Singh, who is in fray from the Congress.      

Let’s take a look at the big fight. 

Jyotiraditya Scindia: Crown prince, third-generation politician  

The 53-year-old joined politics with the Congress over 23 years back, in the wake of his father and Congress veteran Madhav Rao Scindia’s death in a plane crash in 2001. The royal family scion served the INC for 19 years until his dramatic break-up in 2020.   

Days before the Covid crisis hit the country, Scindia rocked the Congress party with a political crisis, leading a mass exodus to the BJP. A total of 22 MLAs, including six ministers, tendered their resignations and joined the saffron party. In a sour end to the power struggle for Madhya Pradesh’s top post – about two years after the 2018 assembly polls – the rebels brought down the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in the state. The BJP rewarded Scindia with the post of union minister for civil aviation and steel. 

Notably, Scindia was a four-time Congress MLA from Guna till 2014. In the two terms of the UPA, he served at the top posts of various ministries and even the Planning Commission of India. Among the tallest and richest young leaders of the party, he lost the Lok Sabha poll in 2019 to another Congressman-turned-BJP leader Krishna Pal Singh Yadav by 1.25 lakh votes.    

The politician was a fierce critic of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi till March 2020, regularly taking digs at him, particularly over the plight of farmers. He also held a “Bharat Bachao” rally.

Scindia’s grandmother Vijaya Raje had quit the grand old party about 52 years ago, toppling the DP Mishra-led Congress government in the state in 1967. His switch to the BJP was hailed as “ghar wapsi”, or return home, by his aunts Vasundhra Raje Scindia and Yashodhara Raje Scindia.     

Not many years ago, the aunt-nephew trio had sparred in the courts as junior Scindia claimed to be the sole inheritor of the royal family’s property worth over Rs 20,000 crore in 2010.     

A contemporary of Rahul Gandhi since their school days, Scindia holds an MBA degree from Stanford and has wealth worth Rs 40 crore as of 2024, besides assets over Rs 382 crore under the Hindu Undivided Family account of Jiwajirao Scindia. His total assets grew significantly from Rs 379 crore in 2019. 

Meanwhile, his fellow turncoats from the Congress may prove to be his own downfall. Read this exclusive piece in Newslaundry for more.

Yadvendra Rao Deshraj Singh: Farmer, BJP rebel, two criminal cases 

The 39-year-old Rao is a “commoner” unlike Scindia, but also from a political family. His late father Deshraj Singh Yadav served as a BJP MLA and unsuccessfully fought against Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna about 22 years ago. 

But Rao himself rose up the political rungs from the post of district panchayat member, and he too served the BJP till months before the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls last year. He then switched to the Congress and contested the assembly poll from Mungaoli, part of the Guna constituency, and lost to the BJP’s Brijendra Singh Yadav by a margin of 5,422 votes. 

While quitting the BJP for the Congress in March 2023, Rao complained that after Scindia joined the BJP, others within the party were “neglected and suppressed”. Perhaps the Congress is hoping to capitalise on BJP workers being unhappy with Scindia by fielding Rao now from the OBC-dominated Guna. The constituency has about four lakh Yadav voters.

Rao has two criminal cases against him. Notably, a total of six members of his family are active in local politics, including his mother, wife and brother as members of the district panchayat. He is a post graduate in rural development and has listed agriculture as his occupation in his affidavit.   

His wealth stands at Rs 1.35 crore as per his affidavit – marginally lower than Rs 1.39 crore in November last year. His multiple X accounts, which have not been active since 2018 still feature reposts of the BJP’s X account and the saffron party’s leaders in his cover pictures.