leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly Satyadev Katare here on Tuesday said that the Congress’ State unit has requested party high command to nominate senior leader Digvijay Singh for the lok Sabha polls from Vidisha seat.
“Both I and Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee president and MP Arun Yadav agree that Singh must contest from Vidisha and we have sent a proposal about this to the party high command,” Katare told mediapersons. leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, is the sitting MP from Vidisha seat and the saffron party has once again repeated her as party candidate from the same constituency.
Vidisha is considered as stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but after the sacking of former Finance Minister Raghavji, equation fast changed there and the Congress might wrest the seat if a strong candidate is fielded. Katare said the Congress can benefit to a great extent if Singh is made the party's choice from Vidisha. Digvijay should agree to contest from Vidisha, the same way veteran BJP leader Vijayaraje Scindia had contested against former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from Rae Bareli in 1980, and Sushma Swaraj had fought against the Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Bellary in 2004, he said.
If Digvijay Singh is announced as the Congress candidate from Vidisha, both Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Swaraj would be concentrating there rather than at other State constituencies, he said. Before becoming a member of the Rajya Sabha, Singh had last year expressed his desire to contest the lok Sabha election from Vidisha.
Swaraj had won the 2009 lok Sabha election from Vidisha by a massive margin of over 4 lakh votes in absence of the Congress candidate from there. The Congress candidate Rajkumar Patel could not file his nomination in 2009 due to some technical reasons.