At around 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, when the sun is at its peak, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh visits the Hoda Mata temple atop a hill in Rajgarh’s Dhand village, barely a couple of kilometres from the State’s border with Rajasthan. After the darshan, he briefly chats with vendors outside the temple, who share their view on various issues, including the broken uphill road and an incomplete public toilet for devotees. He then heads to Bhumaria village for a small public meeting.
Loaded with diverse profile ranging from 10 years as CM to Congress general secretary to currently a Rajya Sabha member, the 77-year-old ‘Raja Saheb’ (as he is called in the area) is now the party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Rajgarh, his home constituency. He is pitted against two-term BJP MP Rodmal Nagar, who won the seat in the 2019 election by a big margin of 4.31 lakh votes.
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After initial reluctance over contesting the election, Mr. Singh finally accepted his party high command’s decision. However, he has made it clear that this will be his last election, which he does not forget to mention at his public meetings.
Old school campaign
As he arrives in the small ground of Bhumaria’s government primary school, a group of about 100 men and a handful of women gather under the tent. In his short speech, he recalls the works done during his tenure as CM between 1993 and 2003, mainly the appointment of youth as government teachers.
Congress leader and candidate for Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh Lok Sabha seat Digvijaya Singh during his outreach campaign in the Khilchipur area of the constituency on April 28, 2024 | Photo Credit: A.M. Faruqui
Apart from hitting out at the BJP on various issues, including unemployment, the prices of food items, and farmers’ woes, Mr. Singh also alleges that the Constitution made by Bhimrao Ambedkar is “in danger”.
“The BJP and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi-ji are taking steps to end democracy,” he says.
Mr. Singh is visiting about 25 villages every day, meeting people patiently, and holding ‘nukkad sabhas’ (street corner gatherings) in at least five to seven villages. His MLA son, Jaivardhan Singh, is also actively campaigning across the constituency. Shortly after the announcement of his candidature, Mr. Digvijaya Singh also undertook an over 100 km-long padyatra (foot march) across the constituency, with bhajans (devotional songs) accompanied by the music of local instruments.
In all, the Congress veteran is fully old school with his campaigning.
Challenging bastion
Locals in Rajgarh say that an extensive campaign was necessary for Mr. Singh as they complain that he “did not stay connected locally” after the end of his tenure as CM and say that the BJP has made deep inroads in most parts of the constituency.
“If you ask the elders, they will be all praise for him, but the main problem is that the younger generation does not know him and his tenure as CM and as local MP,” Bundel Singh Rajput, a farmer in Chachoura, says.
Mr. Singh himself can be heard telling the youth at meetings to ask their elders about his tenure and work.
Once a bastion of Mr. Singh and the Congress, Rajgarh has over the years turned into a stronghold for the BJP. In the 2023 Assembly election, the ruling party bagged six out of the eight Assembly seats in this Lok Sabha segment. Out of the two seats the Congress won, one was Mr. Singh’s ancestral Raghogarh, which was won by Mr. Jaivardhan Singh.
Mr. Singh, who hails from the erstwhile royal family of Raghogarh and won his first election as the Chairman of Raghogarh Municipal Board in 1969, went to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1984 from Rajgarh.
He, however, lost the seat to the BJP’s Pyarelal Khandelwal in 1989 before wresting it back from him in 1991. Mr. Singh vacated the seat in 1993 after he was chosen by the Congress as the State’s CM.
His brother Lakshman Singh then won Rajgarh in a 1994 bylection and held it until 2009, albeit with a twist — he joined the BJP in 2003 and won the seat on its ticket in 2004. In 2009, Mr. Lakshman Singh was defeated by the Congress’ Narayan Singh Amlabe.
The BJP’s Mr. Nagar, a Rashtriya Swayasevak Sangh (RSS) man and strong Other Backward Class (OBC) leader, won it in 2014 and 2019.
Close fight
The voters, however, say that the election this time is going to be a close contest as many claim that Mr. Nagar has been winning comfortably due to Mr. Modi’s popularity and the absence of a strong opponent.
“He has not visited our area even once after getting elected. In fact, he has not yet come to my village for campaigning. He was probably sitting confidently until Digvijaya Singh’s candidature was announced,” Ganpat Jatav, a driver from Jaisinghpura village of Chachoura, says.
Earlier in the day at Semlapura village of Khilchipur Assembly segment, Mr. Singh also tries to separate religious beliefs from elections.
“Today, the public is troubled but there is nobody to talk about it. Chunav aaye, inhone (the BJP) Ram ji ke parchey baantey aur phool (lotus, the BJP’s poll symbol) par vote padey (as soon as the polls come, the BJP campaigns in the name of Lord Ram and gets the votes),” he says, adding, “We all are Rambhakts but the election is about who fights for you in Delhi and Bhopal.”
The move is aimed at preventing the polarisation of the election on communal lines in the BJP’s favour.
Mr. Singh, a staunch critic of the RSS and Hindutva ideology, has been in the line of fire from BJP leaders for several years over his stance on various issues, including communalism. The attacks on him from the ruling party have now increased with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in his April 26 rally in Rajgarh, accusing him of many things, from coining the term “bhagwa atankwad“ (saffron terrorism) to opposing the hanging of Afzal Guru.
Mr. Singh denied the allegations the next day and called Mr. Shah a “liar”. Speaking to The Hindu, he said that the Home Minister had “special affection” towards him as he had mentioned him so much in his speech.
A battery of State BJP leaders led by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav is also constantly taking on Mr. Singh.
“The BJP has long spread misinformation against Raja Sahab saying that he is anti-Hindu and all. We had to spend some time busting these lies across Rajgarh but things are under control now,” Prem Singh Parihar, a local Congress functionary, says.
Dominating the constituency’s electorate, the OBC community consists of about 50% of the total voting population in Rajgarh, with the majority of them hailing from the Dangi and Sondhiya sub-castes. While the Sondhiyas, who hail from across Rajasthan border, have long supported the BJP, Mr. Singh would hope for the backing of the Dangis for the caste equations to work in his favour.
Local observers, however, argue that caste factors had worked more prominently during the previous Assembly election, the parliamentary election is now more between Mr. Singh’s personal connect and Mr. Modi’s popularity.
With less than 10 days to go for the third phase of polling on May 7, Rajgarh is set to witness a fierce contest, one in which many things appear to be at stake, from Mr. Singh’s political stature, and the shaping of the State Congress unit in the coming years given his hold on the organisation.
