In Digvijaya Singh vs Sadhvi Pragya fight, City of Lakes takes a poll plunge into religion
Digvijaya Singh and Sadhvi Pragya have tried to garner greater support invoking their Hindu identity in the Lok Sabha election from Bhopal, which has around 4 lakh Muslim voters.
In Short
- Bhopal Lok Sabha seat goes to the polls on May 12
- BJP has won every Lok Sabha election in Bhopal since 1989
- It is a direct contest between Digvijaya Singh and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur in Bhopal
Digvijaya Singh, the former chief minister, and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case, are in direct contest in Bhopal, the City of Lakes.
Bhopal Lok Sabha seat go to the polls on May 12 in the sixth phase of the ongoing parliamentary election. The Madhya Pradesh capital is the central attraction of the penultimate phase of the national election.
Not natural choice
Interestingly, neither Digvijaya Singh and Sadhvi Pragya voluntarily choose the Bhopal seat to fight Lok Sabha elections.
In the case of Digvijaya Singh he was, according to media reports, forced to contest as Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath had proposed his name for "tough" Bhopal seat. Digvijaya Singh had won two Lok Sabha elections from Raghogarh seat, his home constituency.
The Congress has not tasted success in the Bhopal parliamentary constituency for the past 30 years. The last Congress leader to win from Bhopal was Shankar Dayal Sharma, who later became the President of India. He won the seat in 1984.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, on the other hand, was made the BJP candidate after former senior party leaders Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Uma Bharati refused to contest against Digvijaya Singh from Bhopal, which is considered a bastion of the party.
The two candidates share a rather acrimonious history since 2008, when Sadhvi Pragya was named as an accused in Malegaon terror case after a scooter used for the blast that killed six and injured over a hundred was traced to her. Digvijaya Singh had blamed the RSS and its affiliate organisations. He had written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard.
Now, facing each other in the Lok Sabha election, Digvijaya Singh and Sadhvi Pragya seem to be banking on same style of campaign. Both have invoked religious identity to seek votes in Bhopal.
Hindu identity
Immediately after her nomination, Sadhvi Pragya claimed she was framed in the Malegaon blast by the previous Congress-led UPA government. She said her electoral contest against Digvijaya Singh is a dharma yuddha (religious war). Her campaign tone has been so much loaded with Hindutva overtone that Bhopal BJP’s Muslim face Fatima Rasool Siddique, the party’s lone Muslim candidate in the last year's assembly election, refused to seek vote for Sadhvi Pragya.
Local media reports suggest that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Bhopal office and not the BJP’s local unit office is the base camp for Sadvhi Pragya’s election campaign in the constituency.
The national leadership of the BJP dismissed Sadhvi Pragya’s remark on Hemant Karkare, who was killed during 2008 Mumbai attack, and forced her to retract the statement. But the local VHP leaders defended her for saying that Karkare died because she cursed him for torturing her while she was in custody in connection with the Malegaon blast.
Fearing that the VHP-led campaign for Sadhvi Pragya might sway the voter more than his political personality, Digvijaya Singh played to the gallery. Soon after his nomination from Bhopal, he wondered why RSS opposes him even as I am a Hindu.
The remark came even before Sadhvi Pragya’s nomination was confirmed by the BJP. It appeared as an attempt to wean away Hindutva voters of the BJP in Bhopal.
Bhopal has about 19.5 lakh voters. Out of these, 4.5 lakh are Dalits, 4 lakh are Muslims, 3.5 lakh Brahmins, 2 lakh Kayastha and 1.25 lakh Kshatriyas.
Copycat campaign
Sadhvi Pragya has repeatedly referred to Hindutva and Hindu religion in her campaign over the past four weeks. To counter, her religious appeal, Digvijaya Singh performed a yajna (sacrificial ritual) in full public view on May 7 in Bhopal.
The yajna was performed by Computer Baba, originally Namdeo Das Tyagi, a politically influential religious leader in Madhya Pradesh. He enjoyed the status of a minister in Shivraj Singh Chouhan government of the BJP before he switched sides ahead of the assembly election in the state last year. The Congress defeated the BJP in the state polls returning to power after 15 years.
On May 8, Computer Baba led a road show for Digvijaya Singh in the Old City, following the same route that Sadhvi Pragya undertook when she took out a road show in Bhopal the day she filed her nomination. Digvijaya Singh performed the yajna with his wife Amrita Singh but he was walking alone in the road show.
During the road show, Computer Baba declared Digvijaya Singh’s electoral contest against Sadhvi Pragya a dharma yudh. He proclaimed, Those who use religion for political purpose will be defeated.
Later, another road show was held in Bhopal for Sadhvi Pragya after the BJP cancelled a rally finding the road show better for reaching out to people directly. BJP president Amit Shah and Shivraj Chouhan sought vote for Sadhvi Pragya.
Election battle-cry
If Digvijaya Singh’s road show saw cops later denied by the DIG made to wear saffron gamchha (thin cotton towels) and chant of Modi-Modi leading to registration of FIR, Sadhvi Pragya’s event was marked by barb of Maulana Bantadhar, a reference to the Congress candidate.
Bharat Mata ki Jai (Long Live Mother India) and Narmada Maiyya Ki Jai (Long Live Mother Narmada) were battle-cry in Digvijaya Singh’s road show whereas Pragya didi sant hai, Diggy [Digvijaya Singh] tera ant hai (Sister Pragya is a saint, it is an end for Digvijaya) and Vote as if to send Digvijaya Singh to Pakistan were the highlight of slogan shouting in the BJP’s road show.
Computer Baba managed to gather a huge crowd of priests and saints for the yajna and road show for Digvijaya Singh. Some of the participants were, however, seen telling local TV channels that they had come for construction of the Ram temple (in Ayodhya) and did not care who the candidate was.