Arjun Singh, Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia face a delicate test of loyalty this election.

Their job is to ensure defeat of close relatives contesting against the Congress and disprove the whispers that for them, blood is proving thicker than party bonds. The Congress leadership is watching.

Arjun’s assignment is the trickiest: he has to visit Sidhi on Tuesday and campaign against daughter Veena who is seeking votes in his name, albeit as an Independent.

But the Union minister, who had publicly expressed “disappointment” when Veena was denied a Congress ticket, on Monday criticised the party again for the way it had rewarded his “loyalty”.

Asked in a TV interview if he felt slighted, Arjun said he did not feel slighted but shocked. “I am shocked by what is in store for loyalty. Honour and humiliation have ceased to be concepts in the Congress party,” he said.

Reacting to this, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said: “The philosophy of the party has its own rewards. I believe (that) working for the party and believing in its philosophy and principles have their own rewards.”

Arjun’s wife has already reached Sidhi to side with her daughter. Party leaders said Saroj Singh — “Rani Sahiba” to local people — wielded considerable political clout and her presence in Sidhi would hit Congress prospects badly.

“Most local leaders in Sidhi are first loyal to Arjun and his family, and then to the Congress,” a state Congress official said.

The Congress is alarmed at reports that dozens of local party workers are secretly working for Veena, locally addressed as “Didda Saheb”, while ostensibly supporting the official Congress nominee, Inderjeet Patel.

Arjun will address rallies against Veena in hometown Churhat and other parts of Sidhi on Tuesday, the last day of campaigning before the April 23 vote.

Congress general secretary Digvijay is in Rajgarh to plot the defeat of younger brother Laxman Singh, who is seeking a fifth term as MP.

This is the second time that “Chunnu Raja” is contesting on a BJP ticket, much against the wishes of his elder brother, “Munnu Raja”. Only a handful of Digvijay’s loyalists predict defeat for Laxman, who is pitted against the Congress’s Narain Singh. Narain, going by his affidavit, seems terribly short of money.

He says he owns 22 cows, four buffaloes and a bullock cart but has no shares, debentures or bonds. The balance amounts in his two Bank of India accounts are Rs 305 and Rs 1,307.

Jyotiraditya, Union minister of state for telecom, is shuttling between his own parliamentary seat of Guna and hometown Gwalior, where aunt Yashodhara Raje Scindia is the BJP candidate.

.The entire Gwalior campaign is pivoted on the question of who is the true inheritor of the Scindia legacy. Yashodhara, the sitting MP, is invoking the legacy of her mother, Rajmata Scindia, who was a founder member of the BJP.

Congress observers Harikesh Bahadur, Anil Shastri, Sayeed Ahmad and others are in touch with district party officials in Sidhi, Rajgarh and Gwalior to assess reports that some local Congress leaders and their supporters are playing a double game.

Arjun’s son Ajay, a four-time Congress MLA, has been campaigning in Sidhi for almost a fortnight to prove his party loyalty. But he avoids attacking Veena, who keeps harping on the Congress’s “apathy” towards Arjun.

Veena stresses how a young Arjun had won as an Independent in 1957 and then joined the Congress.

Arjun had left the Congress in 1952 after Jawaharlal Nehru urged voters to defeat the Congress nominee, Arjun’s father Shiv Bahadur Singh, accused of accepting bribes. Shiv Bahadur lost in 1952 and was dead five years later when Arjun restored “family honour”.

Since Rajgarh, Guna and Gwalior share boundaries, Digvijay and Jyotiraditya have patched up and agreed to hold joint rallies after many years to present a united face.

Still, some in the state Congress feel Sonia Gandhi must wait till the results before she takes a decision on these leaders’ loyalty.