Weeks after RSS row, Digvijaya Singh says won’t seek another Rajya Sabha term: Why the Congress veteran is stepping aside

Quoting Singh’s comments, Ahirwar said, “In the same vein, placing before you the expectations of Madhya Pradesh’s approximately 17% Scheduled Caste population, I urge you to ensure representation from the SC category in the Rajya Sabha this time.”

Asked about Ahirwar’s request, Singh said, “This is not in my hands. I can say this much: I am vacating my seat.”

A senior Congress leader familiar with internal deliberations said this was in line with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s vision of rebuilding the Congress by promoting young leaders. “Singh, who has considerable organisational heft, will be dispatched to further strengthen the grassroots organisation and also undertake another Narmada Parikrama before the elections, to boost young Congress workers,” he said.

The move reflects a broader organisational transformation that Gandhi has been trying to implement across states through the “Sangathan Srijan (organisational strengthening)” initiative. The strategy involves redeploying senior leaders with strong grassroots credentials for organisational work, while simultaneously creating pathways for younger leaders to hold positions of visibility and responsibility.

Singh’s 3,300-km circumambulation of the Narmada River in 2017-’18 became a defining moment in Madhya Pradesh politics, helping energise the party ahead of the closely fought 2018 Assembly elections. A second parikrama, timed strategically before the next Assembly elections, would “serve to mobilise grassroots workers, mentor younger leaders, and create a unifying symbolic narrative for a fractured state unit”, said a party functionary.

Challenges before Digvijaya

Singh inherits a daunting task if redeployed to the grassroots. The state Congress is organisationally hollowed out after two decades of Opposition politics, with dormant booth committees, factional rifts, resource constraints, and the lingering effect of defections in 2020 that cost the party not just MLAs but also shattered worker morale.

Throughout his Rajya Sabha tenure, Singh remained combative on ideological questions, frequently engaging in verbal battles with the RSS and the BJP. His willingness to confront Hindutva politics head-on has won him admirers among secular and progressive circles but also turned him into a lightning rod for controversies.

Last month, Singh turned heads when he heaped praise on the organisational strength of the BJP and RSS and the rise of Narendra Modi from an ordinary party worker to Prime Minister. He followed it by calling for the “decentralisation” of power within the Congress and the “need for strengthening” its own organisational structure.He later clarified that he was “one of the bitterest critics of the RSS’s ideology and the functioning of Narendra Modi and his policies.”