Vijay Mallya congratulates Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot as Congress burns midnight oil to pick chief ministers for two states

Vijay Mallya on Thursday congratulated ‘young’ Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot on Twitter raising several eyebrows as to why he selected this time to wish the chief minister probables of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Meanwhile, uncertainty continued in the Congress party over the selection of chief minister candidates for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Madhya Pradesh, two names came up: Party’s state unit chief Kamal Nath and Scindia. In Rajasthan, the Congress is confused between senior party leader Ashok Gehlot and Pilot. Mallya, who has been extradited by the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Monday, in a surprise offered his “many congratulations” to “young champions” Scindia and Pilot and tagged them as well, reported News 18. It led to speculation on whether he was privy to details on who the Congress high command would pick as the chief minister in these two states, the report said.

Mallya’s tweet came amid the process of picking the new chief ministers for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan continued on Thursday despite the Congress returning to power in these two states by defeating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). [caption id=“attachment_5176441” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Vijay Mallya. Reuters[/caption] Earlier, speculations were rife before the Assembly elections and even after that Scindia, who is Lok Sabha member from Guna-Shivpuri, would be made the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh as he was spearheading the poll campaign in the state. Kamal Nath, who was also leading the election campaign, had also made it clear before the election that he was not in the race for the chief minister’s post and his sole purpose was to take the party to victory. Scindia had in November sought to steer clear of reports about a rift among party leaders for the chief ministerial post and said he was not running for any chair and his sole aim was to ensure that his party formed the government. Pilot, on the other hand, was expected to become the next chief minister of Rajasthan considering his age factor besides his rising popularity in several surveys though analysts did not rule out the chances of senior party leader Ashok Gehlot too. Pilot, while clearing the speculations about his chances of becoming the chief minister, had said in October that the party kept a tradition in which, once it won an election, the newly-elected MLAs would meet and elect their leader. — With inputs from agencies