new delhi: senior congress leader madhavrao scindia, who died in a plane crash sunday, was one of the most suave and articulate of the congress leaders and known as an able administrator. scion of the royal family of gwalior, 56-year-old scindia had during his three decades of political career carved a niche for himself ^ be it in politics, the government or in the field of cricket administration. a veteran parliamentarian, scindia began his parliamentary career with support from the jan sangh but drifted from it later to join the congress. he successfully contested his first lok sabha elections in 1971 as an independent with the backing from the sangh. born on march 10, 1945 in mumbai, scindia had politics in his blood, being the son of late rajmata vijayaraje scindia, who died early this year. madhavrao lost his father at an early age and the dominant influence in his formative years was that of his mother. it was but natural that the son had his first electoral battle in 1971 as a jan sangh nominee after vijayaraje quit the congress and joined the sangh. schooled in gwalior, scindia obtained his master of arts degree from oxford university before entering electoral politics in 1971, winning the gwalior lok sabha seat but charted a political course starkly different from his mother's saffron path. scindia was also rated as a prime ministerial candidate along with leaders like manmohan singh before the 1999 lok sabha elections, in the aftermath of the controversy over sonia gandhi's foreign origin. scindia contested the lok sabha elections in 1977, 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999 either from guna or gwalior constituencies and succeeded in winning them all. that madhavrao parted politically with his mother summed up the story of a royal family where differences often tended to go beyond politics. a consistent winner for the congress from madhya pradesh, he had the distinction of not only winning nine times as a lok sabha candidate but registered the proudest moment of his career defeating a b vajpayee by over two lakh votes in 1984 in gwalior. scindia had switched to gwalior at the eleventh hour, leaving vajpayee no chance to change his constituency after the royal family member had consistently contested in guna from 1971 to 1980. scindia's political graph in the congress soared following his able handling of the key railway portfolio in the rajiv gandhi government (1984-89). it was during his time that computerised railway reservations made a beginning. he was also responsible for introducing serving of casserole food in trains replacing the ``thali'' system that was considered unhygienic. during the tenure of the p v narasimha rao government, scindia resigned as civil aviation minister, taking moral responsibility following a crash of a leased uzbek tu-154 plane in delhi in 1993. but given his importance in the party, it was a question of time that scindia would stage a comeback. he did it in two years later as hrd minister in the rao cabinet. but in january 1996, scindia faced the biggest challenge of his political career when the jain hawala scandal broke out which soon saw his exit from the government after his name allegedly figured in the jain diary. he was subsequently denied nomination in the 1996 lok sabha polls by rao which saw scindia floating his outfit, the madhya pradesh vikas congress. scindia won the elections as mpvc candidate from gwalior. known for his ability to turn an unfavourable situation into an advantage for himself, scindia returned to the congress when narasimha rao resigned as the party president and sitaram kesri took his place.