The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
After three decades, Digvijaya relies on former turf to see him past finish line
EVEN BEFORE the official Congress list had come out, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh had announced that he would be the party's Lok Sabha candidate from Rajgarh, marking his return to the seat after three decades.
His announcement came after weeks of allegations by the BJP that senior Congress leaders were shying away from fighting the Lok Sabha elections.
While Digvijaya has himself been out of electoral politics in the state since his CM spell from 1993 to 2003, he has always been a prime target for the BJP, including in the recent Assembly elections. The reason is the veteran's hold on the Congress unit in the state, which he has covered across its length and breadth on foot as part of his several yatras.
Digvijaya has also never shied away from taking the BJP headon over Hindutva and other controversial issues, even if treading on own leadership's toes at times.
During the recent Assembly elections, the Congress delegated Digvijaya the responsibility for 66 Assembly seats where the party was weak. The
Congress looked very much in the race – till it lost.
Digvijaya's supporters have since been claiming that he didn't get the backing in terms of resources that he needed, with rival-turned-comrade
Kamal Nath running a “one-man show”.
However, as he enters the poll ring from Rajgarh, Digvijaya will not have any of these fig leaves. He knows the constituency well, having begun his political journey from here when he was elected president of the Raghogarh Nagar Palika in 1969 at the age of 22. By the time his term ended in 1971, he had found his political footing and soon began his stint with the Congress.
In 1977, when the Congress was wiped out across the country, Digvijaya won from the Raghogarh Assembly constituency – a family seat won by his father Balbhadra Singh, the titular king of Raghogarh, in the very first general elections of 1951-52. He went on to win Raghogarh in 1998 and 2003.
In 1984, Digvijaya entered the Lok Sabha as an MP from Rajgarh. However, in 1989, he lost to the BJP'S Pyarelal Khandelwal by 67,424 votes – the BJP was part of the Janata Dal coalition led by V P Singh that defeated the Congress at the Centre in the 1989 polls.
With the Janata Dal government soon collapsing, Digvijaya won the seat back in 1991. When he returned to state politics for a 10-year stint as CM, he passed on the reins to brother Laxman Singh, who won Rajgarh the next five times for the Congress.
After Digvijaya lost power in 2003, he took a pledge not to contest elections for 10 years. He has beenarajyasabhampsince2014. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, hecontestedfrombhopalbutlost to the BJP’S Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur by over 3.6 lakh votes.
Meanwhile, Rajgarh has been slipping away from the Congress, even as Laxman Singh’s loyalties have swung between the party andbjp.in2014and2019,theseat was won by the BJP'S MP Rodmal Nagar (63).