Digvijaya Singh: The Diggy Raja who may have dug one hole too many

The Congress perhaps was left with no choice, if it didn’t want the rest of the few days of its Bharat Jodo Yatra, that is passing through J&K, to be caught up in dousing the fires of Digvijaya’s statement. Particularly with the BJP looking for precisely such an opening to attack the Congress over its nationalist credentials.

Digvijaya has been a prominent part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, walking on and off from when it started in September from Tamil Nadu, often accompanied by his wife. But for once, the wily 75-year-old’s clever machinations to remain in the spotlight might backfire.

The beginning

It was 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi, then the prime minister and Congress president, sprang a surprise by naming Digvijaya the head of the Madhya Pradesh Congress – picking him over the likes of Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia and brothers Shyama Charan Shukla and Vidya Charan Shukla, who called the shots in the state unit.

Belonging to the erstwhile royal family of Raghogarh in Guna, Digvijaya was an MP and two-time MLA, who had served as a minister under Arjun Singh, when Rajiv tapped him to head the MPCC.

Digvijaya was the state Congress chief till 1988 as a Rajiv appointee and, after the latter’s assassination, was reappointed to the post in 1992 by new Congress president and PM P V Narasimha Rao.

By then, Digvijaya had proved a quick learner in the art and craft of realpolitik, particularly the Congress’s, having picked a trick or two from guru Arjun Singh.

The chief ministership

In 1993, Digvijaya was in his second term as MP and PCC president and did not contest that year’s Assembly elections. However, fancying his chances as CM, he began the groundwork, counting on the fact that Arjun Singh and Scindia would not want V C Shukla to become CM at any cost.

Digvijaya suggested that the next CM be an SC/ST or OBC, thus putting Shukla out of the picture. Scindia, who was a bitter rival of the Shukla brothers, quickly seconded this, while backing OBC leader Subhash Yadav as his choice. Then, in a last-minute plot twist, Digvijaya entered the race on the eve of the Congress Legislature Party meeting, with Kamal Nath’s support.

Even as the Shukla and Scindia camps tried to understand what had happened, by the next morning, Digvijaya had emerged as the choice of a majority of the MLAs.

All these decades later, party old-timers are still not sure what exactly transpired, if Arjun Singh propped up the young MP or if the former CM was boxed into supporting his protege, or if the two had a falling out (another scenario that was speculated upon at the time).

The fall of the rivals

No matter what went on behind the scenes, what was clear was that a new satrap had emerged in MP, and for that matter the Hindi heartland. While a year after becoming the CM, Digvijaya vacated the PCC president post, he went on to remain CM for 10 years. While his innings was marred by several controversies, he remained unchallenged.

In 1995, further clearing the field for Digvijaya, Arjun Singh left the Congress with N D Tiwari to float the Tiwari Congress. After Arjun Singh’s exit, the Shuklas, Scindia and Motilal Vora tried their best to bring Digvijaya down, but to no avail. Scindia turned his attention to the Centre, and in 1996, he contested for the post of Congress president against Sitaram Kesri, losing spectacularly.

Digvijaya survived all these upheavals. While seen as a Rao appointee, he had a channel open with Sharad Pawar as well, and then quickly moved to humour Sonia Gandhi once she took over as Congress president.

Digvijaya hit one of his first bumps in the 1998 general elections, when the Congress put up a dismal show in MP, winning only 10 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. He is said to have promised Sonia that he would ensure the party’s victory or leave politics for a decade. That did not come to pass though and, after the Congress came back to power under Digvijaya’s leadership at the end of the year, he became CM for the second time.

His state tenure finally ended five years later, in 2003, when the Congress lost power in MP. Digvijaya took his avowed 10-year break from electoral politics. The Congress did not come close to power in MP for the next 15 years, and while it formed a government in 2018, it did not last long.

Second innings

The MP loss and the vow to not contest polls saw Digvijaya make the move to the national stage. In 2005, he was appointed AICC general secretary in-charge of Bihar and then Uttar Pradesh. His UP tenure saw Digvijaya grow close to Rahul Gandhi. He was part of the Congress scion’s much-publicised visit to Bhatta-Parsaul to join farmers protesting against land acquisition.

As Rahul took baby steps in politics at the time, sometimes treading on the toes of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, Digvijaya was often in the picture.

The statements by Digvijaya that landed the Congress and UPA government in a spot included calling the 2008 Batla House encounter fake and seeking a judicial probe. After the November 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attack, Digvijaya said he had spoken to Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare hours before he was killed and he had talked of receiving threats from Hindu extremists.

Karkare was at the time heading investigations into the 2008 Malegaon blasts, for which three members of a Hindutva group had been arrested.

Digvijaya’s visits to Azamgarh, from where several terror accused had been arrested, also pushed the Congress into a corner. His “Muslim line” was seen as polarising voters, to the benefit of the BJP.

In 2010, Digvijaya took on then Union home minister P Chidambaram on the government’s Naxal policy, even calling him “intellectually arrogant” in a newspaper article.

But during the Congress’s long absence from power in both MP and at the Centre, Digvijaya has struggled to hold on to his position at the centre while popping up in the state now and then.

In 2017, he faced backlash when the Congress missed out on forming the government in Goa despite being the single largest party. As the AICC general secretary in-charge of the state, Digvijaya was accused of not moving fast enough to keep off the BJP. Two months later, he was removed as in-charge of both Goa and Karnataka.

In August, he was stripped of the charge of Telangana as well, leaving him as general secretary in-charge of only Andhra Pradesh.

In September that year, Singh began a 3,300-km ‘Narmada Parikrama’, a walk along the banks of the river Narmada, which he completed in April 2018.

In May 2018, he lost his last AICC role when he was removed as Andhra in-charge.

Around the same time, Digvijaya was appointed chairman of the coordination committee set up for MP elections, with the message clear that he should focus on the state. Months later, he was ejected from the CWC when it was reconstituted by then president Rahul Gandhi.

Digvijaya sought to downplay this, saying “the top priority” was to defeat the BJP in the 2018 Assembly polls. He proceeded to focus on the state, and the Congress emerged as the single-largest party. However, the government headed by Kamal Nath was short-lived, as Jyotiraditya Scindia moved to the BJP with his loyalist MLAs. Again, Digvijaya found himself right at the centre, with party leaders blaming him for being instrumental in the sidelining of Scindia, his old rival, prompting his exit.

However, proving himself a survivor, Digvijaya clawed back into the AICC system. In September 2020, he was made a permanent invitee by interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who needed the backing of veterans in the wake of the letter by G-23 seeking an overhaul in the way the party was run.

A year later, Digvijaya was appointed head of a panel set up by Sonia to plan sustained agitations on national issues. Last year, he figured in the political affairs group set up Sonia to discuss political issues and challenges before the party.

Before the Bharat Jodo Yatra began, Digvijaya became the senior-most member in the central planning group set up by Sonia for coordination of the march, and soon, its main coordinator along with Jairam Ramesh.

Most recently, he was floated as a possible contender for Congress presidency after the party’s first official choice, Ashok Gehlot, ruled himself out following defiance by his loyalists in Rajasthan.