‘Pehchante ho na?’: Digvijaya reconnects with home base in MP for ‘swan song’, turns up heat on BJP

“Pehchante ho na? (Don’t you know me?),” Digvijaya asks a gathering of women in Chachaura’s Umarthana village, as he urges them to vote for him.

This Lok Sabha election could be Digvijaya’s last one, as he indicates himself. “Well, I am 77 now. I don’t want to contest at the age of 82.”

As Digvijaya’s convoy reaches a nukkad sabha in Batawada village, several locals rush towards him, reminding him about his decisions taken many years ago. (Express photo by Anand Mohan J)

It is another matter that he is known for his remarkable energy which was also seen when he traversed the vast state on foot in 2017-18.

The scion of the erstwhile Raghogarh ruling family and two-term CM has returned to the Rajgarh Lok Sabha constituency to contest after 33 years. The past master of MP politics knows the constituency well, having fought his first parliamentary polls from here four decades ago. The Raghogarh Assembly segment is part of this seat.

Speaking to The Indian Express on his campaign trail, Digvijaya explains how this election is different from others. “The stakes are very high. The Constitution, democracy and the very existence of democratic values are under threat,” he says.

In the 1984 polls, Digvijaya got elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from Rajgarh. In 1989, however, he lost the election to the BJP’s Pyarelal Khandelwal. He wrested the seat from the BJP in the 1991 elections.

When Digvijaya returned to state politics for a 10-year stint as the CM, from 1993 to 2003, he passed on the baton to his younger brother Laxman Singh, who went on to win the seat the next five times for the Congress (four times) and the BJP (once).

After the Congress led by him was ousted from power in 2003, Digvijaya stuck to his pledge not to contest the elections for the next 10 years. He switched to the Congress’s national politics, becoming the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of key states including Uttar Pradesh. He has also been a Rajya Sabha MP since 2014.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Digvijaya threw his hat in the ring from Bhopal, but lost to BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur by over 3.6 lakh votes.

Meanwhile, the BJP tightened its grip on the Rajgarh seat, with Laxman Singh himself switching loyalties between the Congress and the BJP.

In the 2014 and 2019 polls, the BJP’s Rodmal Nagar bagged the seat. He trounced the Congress’s Mona Sustani by 4.31 lakh votes in 2019. Nagar, 63, is taking on Digvijaya this time, with Rajgarh going to polls in the third phase on May 7.

As Digvijaya’s convoy reaches a nukkad sabha in Batawada village, several locals rush towards him, reminding him about his decisions taken many years ago. “Remember? You made me the sarpanch,” an elderly man says.

Another man, in his late 30s, tells him, “My grandfather fought with you during the elections.” Others remind him of a small lake, a girls’ hostel or a road in the area that he got built during his tenure as the CM.

Singh, known for his huge network of friends and loyalists across the state, starts working the crowd. He hugs several booth-level workers, shares jokes with some groups and then diligently takes down the phone numbers of several people.

He even patiently listens to local disputes and asks two rival sides, which have filed police cases against each other, to calm down. “Let me do something,” he assures them.

On his connect with the people, Digvijaya says, “I contested here for the first time in 1984 and have had a close contact with the people here since then. Even after I became the CM, I had a relationship with the people here. Now my relationship has revived, someone’s grandsons, nephews of the people I knew back then have joined me.”

He apologises to the people for his long absence, reminding them of the vow he had taken to not contest the elections after the then Uma Bharti-led BJP handed him a stunning defeat in 2003.

“After 2003, I had taken a vow not to contest the elections and lost my connect. I was touring different states and held many responsibilities with the party. But I always tried to serve the people whenever they reached out for help,” he says.

Digvijaya is accompanied by Omkar Singh Markam, a senior Congress MLA and firebrand tribal leader, who attacks Union Home Minister Amit Shah for urging people, in his recent Rajgarh rally, to ensure Digvijaya’s “permanent farewell” from politics. Digvijaya has also hit back at Shah for his “ashiq ka janaza hai zara jhoom ke nikle” remarks against him.

Markam tells the gathering: “How dare Amit Shah insult not only Digvijaya Singh but the entire people of Rajgarh, because Digvijay is the son of soil from Rajgarh. How can anyone tell your son to perform his last rites?”

When asked why he has always been at the centre of the BJP attack, Digvijaya says sarcastically, “Because they love me. They have nothing else to say against me.”

As his team enters Batawada village, the news of the Congress’s Vijaypur MLA Ramniwas Rawat joining the BJP breaks. When asked about the continuing exodus of the Congress leaders to the BJP, Digvijaya says, “I don’t understand that if Modi is so popular and the BJP is so popular, why are they poaching Congress leaders.”

In his campaign, Singh has been raking up Rodmal Nagar’s alleged “non-performance” and “lack of visibility” in the constituency. Nagar is said to be mainly banking on the Narendra Modi factor and the RSS’ formidable organisational machinery in the region.

“I did whatever I could when I was the CM. Rodmal Nagar is an MP for 10 years. You know him, right?” Singh asks the gathering at Batawada, to which the people respond, “Nahi jante, nahi jante (We don’t know).” He then says: “Bina dekhe aapne sansad bana diya. Mujhe pehchante ho na? (You elected Nagar as the MP without seeing him. You know me, right?) He was an MP for 10 years, but did nothing. Congress asked me to fight the election in Rajgarh, I accepted. Rajgarh is the same as I left it.”

In all his rallies, Digvijaya highlights issues like price rise and various problems of farmers. He also charges, “BJP government has waived off 16 lakh crore of big capitalists.”

Digvijaya had attributed the Congress’s decimation in the 2023 Assembly polls to the “EVM manipulation”. He appears to be moving on by asking the people to give him a “big lead”. “You can defeat the machine (EVM)… Just press the hand symbol and don’t look elsewhere. Give all your votes and the machine will get tired and the Congress will win,” he says.