If Congress workers are to be believed the going is getting tougher for their candidate Digvijaya Singh. “To show Diggi Raja is anti-Hindu, they just have to show some of his old statements. The RSS and BJP workers are spreading canards: Diggi Raja is a converted Muslim,” said a Congress worker who had went along with Singh for two days for campaigning.
According to a local Congress worker Akhilesh, there is no doubt that the BJP has fielded Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur to “polarise” election. He admitted that her campaign is getting traction not only in Bhopal but in other parts of the state.
As we sat in a restaurant to have our lunch, two youths sitting on the other side were watching a video clip of Sadhvi Pragya’s interview appeared on a TV channel in which she recounts her ordeal in the police custody.
When I asked the youths whether they believed what she said, one of them replied: “These Congressis are capable of doing this. Digvijaya Singh is a hated politician. He was responsible for proliferation of Christian institutions in Madhya Pradesh, especially Bhopal.”
According to Praveen, an RSS activist, the religious conversions used to be a hot topic in Madhya Pradesh till BJP came to power 15 years ago.
The message that Pragya Singh has been falsely implicated in terror cases has gone down to the lowest strata of the society. The Sadhvi is a formidable candidate against the top Congress leader but people caution that Singh is not pushover.
“He is a wily politician. Although he is a reviled much, the wily politician has several friends in the BJP. The saving grace is that many Congressmen also don’t like him,” said a BJP worker.
Political observers agree that with the entry of Pragya Singh Thakur, Hindutva is back with a force. Despite his best efforts to shift the debate from Hindutva to economic issues, there is no escape. He is getting increasingly drawn to the Hindutva debate.
Addressing a recent poll meeting, Digvijaya Singh said he was a better Hindu than the Sadhvi.
To this, the Sadhvi said: “Digvijaya Singh is a wily politician. For all these years he has been trying to hold one community against the other. If he has been better Hindu, like he goes to Azamgad, he should have gone to Ayodhya also.”
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