Fight with Digvijay Singh ended in 2003: Uma Bharti

Bhopal: Union minister Uma Bharti on Monday dug in her heels over taking on Congress veteran Digvijay Singh in Bhopal in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, saying, “My fight against him ended in the 2003 Assembly elections in MP when I dislodged his decade-long government”.

The firebrand saffron leader tweeted a series of posts reiterating her assertion not to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Ms Bharti, who is currently fighting a defamation case filed against her by Mr Singh around 15 years ago for calling him a corrupt chief minister, however, said she was not afraid of a contest against the septuagenarian leader as she could defeat him easily in the polls.

“My role was over when the BJP led by me crushed Congress led by Mr Singh in 2003 Assembly elections in MP with a three-fourths majority. This time, people are desperate to defeat him,” Ms Bharti said.

She recounted how former chief ministers such as Kailash Nath Katju, P.C. Sethi and Arjun Singh were defeated by BJP leaders and said, “Shivraj Singh Chouhan, a CM for 13 years, can easily defeat Mr Singh. Even leaders like sitting Bhopal MP Alok Sanjar, Alok Sharma, Rameswar Sharma, Krishna Gaur, Bhagwandass Sabnani, Shailendra Sharma and Viswas Sarang can also defeat him without putting much effort”.

She, however, added that the party would take the final call on the candidate for Bhopal.

Sources, however, said the BJP leadership was still persuading Ms Bharti to withdraw her decision to back out of the upcoming LS polls and take on Mr Singh in Bhopal.

She has been sulking ever since she was removed from post of chief minister of MP in 2004 following a court case and was not reinstated in the office even after the case was settled in her favour.

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