With the candidature of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh been finalised from Bhopal, the fight in the Madhya Pradesh capital is likely to be interesting as Pragya Thakur, aka Sadhvi Pragya Bharti, may be pitted against him. Digvijay is contesting election after 2003 in the State.
Digvijay’s candidature was made public by Chief Minister Kamal Nath during his interaction with mediapersons at a programme here on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Congress has changed the seat allotted to its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Raj Babbar from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri, in an apparent bid to make the Lok Sabha contest easier for the actor-turned-politician. Imran Pratapgarhiya will now be the party’s candidate from Moradabad.
Party sources said that Babbar was not keen on contesting from Moradabad, where the BJP has fielded its sitting MP Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar.
After having served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for 10 years from 1993 to 2003, Digvijay had left the State saying that he would not contest any election. At present, he is a Rajya Sabha member.
Digvijay took active part in MP in the run up to the last Assembly elections.
The way the MP CM announced the candidature of Digvijay was quite dramatic. Generally, the CEC of AICC declares the list. Nath said, “I have a list of party candidates in my pocket but I can’t disclose. However, I can make an announcement. (Congress) Election Committee yesterday (Friday) finalised the name of Digvijay Singhji from Bhopal.”
When asked whether Digvijay was happy with the decision, Nath said, “I do not know, whether he is happy, but I am happy.” To a query, whether he has “dealt” with Digvijay with this decision, Nath parried the question on Digvijay’s winnability.
Sadhvi Pragya Bharti, who has been acquitted in the Malegaon blast case, is ready to take on Digvijay. Talking to mediapersons in Bhopal, she said, “Digvijay Singh is a ‘desh ka dushman’ and I openly challenge country’s enemies,”
Pragya was discharged from an ayurvedic hospital in the city months ago after being treated for critical illnesses.
Though Pragya did not confirm whether she has been contacted by the BJP to fight poll, she did say the BJP was a party which matched her ideology. However, Pragya hinted she wasn’t much eager to contest election, but said she was contacted by someone to fight election. Pragya, who had taken sanyas at 14, said it was an opportune moment to enter politics. She slammed the Congress for attacking and Hindutva by calling them terror forces. Pragya was given clean chit in the murder of RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi as well.
State BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal told The Pioneer that the voters are waiting for Digvijay to contest from Bhopal. They want to teach him a lesson.
Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, which was represented by Shankar Dayal Sharma in 1971-77 and 1980-1984, has been held by BJP since 1989.
Bhopal constituency is represented by BJP’s Alok Sanjar, who had won the seat in 2014 by a margin of 3.70 lakh votes. BJP stalwarts like Sushil Chandra Verma, Uma Bharati and Kailash Joshi had represented the seat in the past.
Former cricketer late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, scion of the erstwhile Bhopal State, had unsuccessfully contested from Bhopal on a Congress’ ticket in 1991. The constituency is spread over eight Assembly segments, namely Berasia, Bhopal Uttar, Narela, Bhopal Dakshin-Paschhim, Bhopal Madhya, Govindpura, Huzur and Sehore.