Digvijaya Singh to contest Lok Sabha election from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh

Digvijaya Singh will contest the Lok Sabha election from Bhopal parliamentary constituency in Madhya Pradesh. The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister was also given the option to contest from Indore or Jabalpur.

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Ending speculation, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday announced that senior leader Digvijaya Singh will contest the Lok Sabha election from Bhopal parliamentary constituency in Madhya Pradesh.

Addressing an event in Bhopal, Kamal Nath announced, "The central election campaign committee of the party has decided that Digvijaya Singh will contest from Bhopal."

With this, Digvijaya Singh would be contesting an election after a gap of almost 19 years, the last being the assembly election he contested in 2003. Digvijaya Singh was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 from MP.

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Kamal Nath also said that the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister was given the option to contest from Indore or Jabalpur. "Later, it was decided that he will be the Congress candidate from Bhopal," Kamal Nath announced.

Sources in the Congress said that Kamal Nath had identified Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur as three Lok Sabha seats where the Congress had not won for 30 years. As part of a strategy it was decided to field strong candidates from these seats to try and wrest them from the BJP.

The announcement has come a few days after Kamal Nath had asked the Congress veteran, Digvijaya Singh, to choose a tough seat to enter the Lok Sabha election fray.

Digvijaya Singh had then said that he was ready to contest from wherever Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi wants him to. The veteran leader also said that accepting challenges was his habit.

Bharatiya Janata Party's Alok Sanjar is the sitting MP from the Bhopal Lok Sabha seat.

Digvijaya Singh’s candidature has turned the Bhopal seat into an interesting contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Bhopal is considered a one-sided match in favour of the BJP with the party winning the seat continuously from 1989. The last Congress MP elected from Bhopal was KN Pradhan in 1985 during the post Indira Gandhi assassination wave when the Congress won all 40 seats in united Madhya Pradesh which included Chhattisgarh too.

Polls for total 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh will be held in four phases during April 29-May 19 period.