"Don't just say 'Oh Scindiaji will surely win, so why go out in the heat and vote for him?' Only if you come out to vote will I have a historic win, it is only by the strength of every single of your votes that I can have a win like in 2002."

In the 2004 election, Scindia won by 86,000 votes, his vote share reduced by 15 per cent. While a group in the crowd talks about the work done by him and his father in Guna -- railway lines and roads, in particular - Radha Srivastava, a local, says they have had a 40-year-old association with the family which is a bond of sentiment.

In the largely rural area, the Scindia legacy runs deep and Jyotiraditya hopes to create another milestone in the 15th general election on the mantra of progress and the power of heritage.

How would you rate your brief tenure as Union telecom minister?

In addition to the proliferation of telecom and IT, one of the areas that has not got due importance which is integral to our country is the department of posts.

In ten months I brought in McKinsey to do business process restructuring and brought in O&M to do rebranding.

Through Project Arrow we are totally repositioning the department of posts as a service outlet of the 22nd century. We are not only repositioning the infrastructure, but providing broadband into every Project Arrow post office and Internet service even in rural areas.

We are also redoing the backend which sees the service area propositioning -- the delivery of mail the same day -- therefore the department is going through a transformation completely.

You have also taken steps to improve the life of the grameen daakiya (village postman).

It is very important that if we tend to bring about a transformation in any department, it is very important to ensure that the employees are empowered in that department. To do that, we have to give new incentives to the Grameen Dak Sevaks in terms of allowances. Their children were not allowed to go to Kendriya Vidyalayas because they were extra departmental employees.

I spoke to (Human Resources Development Minister) Arjun Singhji and from the next academic year, GDS children can actually go to Kendriya Vidyalayas -- so a lot of stuff for betterment.

Image: Congress supporters at a party rally.

Also read: Complacency bothers BJP in Vidisha | India Votes

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