Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, is set to witness a keen contest: Digvijay Singh against Sadhvi Pragya. The saffron-clad Sadhvi, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts case was acquitted sometime ago. She is undoubtedly a controversial figure, prone to make provocative statements. But so is Digvijay Singh. He too is given to make outlandish remarks in order to endear himself to the minority community.
For example, he shed copious tears, crocodile or genuine one cannot say, for the Batla House terror suspects, calling the encounter deaths of two of them as cold-blooded murders by the Delhi Police, then under the UPA Government. Or addressing Osama bin Laden with becoming respect as Osamaji ! And many more such gems.
In Sadhavi Pragya he may have met more than his match. For, she tends to over-sell the Hindu cause at the same time leaving none in doubt about the poor opinion she holds of the minority community. Soon after the BJP announced her candidature, the Sadhvi, true to type, upset the secularist-liberal brigade, terming the electoral contest as a ‘dharama yudh.’
With over three lakh Muslim voters in an electorate of about 14 lakhs, Bhopal is certain to be polarized by the very personalities of the two contestants, a factor which can only make the task of BJP easier. Whether or not it is a fight between the pseudo secularism of the Congress Party and the Hindutva of the BJP, all eyes will now be on Bhopal.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath who virtually forced Diggi Raja into this battle from the BJP stronghold will be chuckling in his sleeves the way he has pinned him down, leaving no time for him to play the super CM.
