Madhavrao Scindia is a nine time Member of Parliament, who was born to the last ruling Gwalior Maharaja, Jivajirao Scindia on March 10, 1945.
He passed away on September 30 in a plane crash on the outskirts of Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2001.
Scindia was accompanied by seven more people in the plane which included his personal secretary Rupinder Singh, journalists namely Sanjeev Sinha from The Indian Express, Anju Sharma from The Hindustan Times, Gopal Bisht, Ranjan Jha from Aaj Tak, pilot Ray Gautam and co-pilot Ritu Malik.
His son Jyotiraditya Scindia was appointed as the head of the family after his death
His education
Scindia underwent his schooling in the Scindia School, Gwalior and thereafter went for higher studies in Winchester College and at New College, Oxford.
His foray into politics
In 1961, Scindia became Gwalior Maharaj he being a descendant of the Scindia dynasty. However, as the Government of India abolished all official symbols of princely states, Scindia joined politics and won elections for the first time from Guna Constituency at the age of 26.
A man who never lost elections
A nine-term member of Lok Sabha, Scindia never lost an election since 1971. Initially, he contested the election on the ticket of Jan Sangh. In the 1977 election after the emergency, he contested from Guna constituency as an Independent and won the seat a second time when the wave was in favour of Janata Party (Bhartiya Lok Dal-BLD). In the 1980 election, he joined Congress and won from Guna a third time. In 1984, he contested from Gwalior as the Congress candidate and defeated BJP’s candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After that Scindia either contested from Gwalior or Guna and won each time.
He successfully led the esteemed ministries including Railways, HRD and Civil Aviation to make a mark.
When Scindia left Congress
In 1996, Scindia opened rebellion against the Congress and left the party. He formed the Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress (MPVC) and defeated his rival Congress candidate, Shashi Bhushan Vajpeyi, to enter Lok Sabha for the seventh time.
In 1998, Scindia returned to the Congress after Sitaram Kesri was ousted as Congress president. He merged the MPVC with Congress, and from then till his unfortunate death in 2001, Scindia remained a close adviser of Congress president, Sonia Gandhi.
