Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur to take on Digvijay Singh

Bhopal/New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday decided to pit firebrand saffron leader and Malegaon blast accused Pragya Singh Thakur against Congress veteran and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh in the prestigious Bhopal parliamentary seat.

BJP president Amit Shah, while addressing a campaign rally in Odisha, said that his party decided to field Ms Thakur against the “creator” of the term “saffron terror,” Mr Digvijay Singh, so that the issue could be decided in the “people’s court”.

The BJP’s move to field Ms Thakur is being viewed as a conscious attempt by the party to revive the Hindutva plank in M.P. just as it is doing across the country.

“We consider the election in Bhopal to be the most significant for us. Pragya’s victory in the polls will remove once and for all the ‘Hindu terror’ tag set by some Congress leaders,” a senior BJP leader here said.

Congress’ Digvijay Singh is currently trying to shed his anti-Hindu image with temple runs in Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, considered an impregnable fortress of the BJP.

“It is a dharmayudh (a crusade), not an ordinary poll battle. It is a fight against those who are conspiring against nation,” the self-proclaimed god woman told reporters in Bhopal on Wednesday.

Ms Thakur, 48, who was a leader of the Akhil Bharativya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the BJP’s student, was declared the BJP’s candidate for Bhopal hours after she formally joined the party.

“It is absolutely no big challenge for me (to defeat Mr Singh). I am going to win the elections,” she said.

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