Bhopal: Veteran Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who has been fielded by Congress in Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency, has taken the “Hindutva” route to wrest the saffron bastion from BJP in the upcoming elections by paying visits to temples and seers.
Mr Singh, said to be a reluctant candidate for Bhopal from Congress, has so far visited half-a-dozen temples besides seeking blessings of Hindu and Jain seers in the last couple of days before taking a meeting of senior Congress leaders on Thursday to firm up the strategy to win the ‘crucial election of his political career’.
The septuagenarian leader who was said to have been “forced” to contest from Bhopal despite his reported reservation has visited ashrams of Sharad Peeth Shankarac-harya Swami Swaroopa-nand Saraswati, and Jain seer Acharya Vidya Sagar Maharaj in Madhya Pradesh to seek their blessings besides paying darshan of presiding deities in famed shrines of Gufa, Nebri, Kal Bharavi, and Nandiswar in different parts of the state during the period.
He took a meeting of his close associates and senior Congress leaders in the party officer on Thursday to chalk out strategy to taken on BJP in its “own den” in Bhopal.
“I am a Hindu. But, I don’t flaunt being a Hindu”, he told reporters.
Talking to reporters, Mr Singh attacked RSS saying that the Sangh was working for the cause of Hindus, but it has reservation to support him despite the fact that he too is a Hindu.
Incidentally, Mr Singh attracted criticism from former chief minister and senior BJP leader Babulal Gaur, whom he often addressed as his good friend, for his temple-hopping before elections.
Referring to the recent statement by state minister and senior Congress leader Arif Akeel who called Mr Singh as “Sachha (true) Hindu”, Mr Gaur quipped, “Then why Mr Singh was not supporting construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya”.
Former chief minister and BJP national vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan also took a swipe at Mr Singh for his temple-hopping spree, saying, “Like other Congress leaders, Mr Singh remembers gods in temples before elections”.
