Chhindwara: The Hanuman-bhakt Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Kamal Nath, believes the BJP has made a huge mistake by fielding Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur as its Lok Sabha candidate from Bhopal.
“They (BJP) are trying to polarise elections along communal lines by fielding her. It will backfire,” the chief minister told ThePrint in Chhindwara Friday. “Take it from me, Digvijaya Singh (the Congress candidate from Bhopal) will trounce her.”
He also condemned Thakur’s remarks that Mumbai anti-terrorism squad chief Hemant Karkare was killed because of her “curse”. Karkare had been killed in action during the 26/11 Mumbai terror strike.
“It’s very sad that a martyr is insulted like this. I condemn her remarks,” Nath said.
The chief minister was in Chhindwara, his Lok Sabha constituency and from where his son, Nakul Nath, is now making his electoral debut. Nath is contesting the Chhindwara assembly bypoll — he was not a member of the MP assembly when he was made the chief minister.
It’s the first time ever, he pointed out, when a father and a son are contesting from the “same” constituency (with identical names), which also go to polls on the same day (29 April).
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The Hanuman bhakt CM
Although Nath saw in Thakur’s candidature an evidence of the saffron party’s “communal agenda”, he didn’t see it working in the ongoing elections. His helicopter hovered over the 101-feet Hanuman statue in Chhindwara — that he had built in 2012 — even as he explained the “futility” of the BJP’s polarising tactics to ThePrint.
The chief minister and his son also began their day with prayers at the ‘chamatkari (miracle-inducing)’ Hanuman temple, which is even visited by Union Minister Uma Bharti before every election.
They ended the day conducting prayers at Hanuman temple under the glare of TV cameras. The loudspeaker blared “Jai, Jai, Shri Ram ka gun gayenge”, skipping another line that is played elsewhere — “Kasam Ram ki Khaate hain, hum mandir wahin banayenge”. Before leaving the temple campus, the Nath family joined scores of devotees in clapping as a group of artistes sang the Sunder Kand (a chapter in epic Ramayana dealing with Hanuman’s journey to Lanka).
The Madhya Pradesh chief minister didn’t see “any Modi wave”, claiming that Modi has been “exposed” and so the Congress will win most of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state (the BJP had won 27 of them in 2014). “The real issues are jobs for the youth, farm distress…what has he done for them?”
And if it seemed counter-intuitive to political observers in the national capital, Nath reminded them: “This (Chhindwara and similar places in MP) is the real India, not Delhi.” To further prove his point, the chief minister went over to the crowd waiting for him near the helipad at the Chamatkari Hanuman temple. “Do you see any Modi wave?” he asked, shaking hands with them and folding his hands in greetings. “No…not at all” was their common reply, with one of them adding, much to the CM’s delight, “ab to aap hain (now it’s you).”
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Nationalism narrative will not save BJP
Nath also didn’t see any impact of Balakot air strikes on elections: “People are, in fact, angry that the BJP is politicising the achievements of the armed forces. They want to hear what Modi government has done for their day-to-day life.”
He denied that former chief minister Digvijaya Singh was compelled to contest from Bhopal, a BJP stronghold, after he publicly urged him and other senior leaders to contest on “tough” seats.
“Digvijaya is my dear friend. It’s true that I proposed it to him. Why should he be in the Rajya Sabha?” Nath said. “He was the chief minister and the state Congress chief for so long. He agreed. It was only after he said ‘yes’ and decided to contest from Bhopal that I went public about it. He is certainly going to win.”
The Madhya Pradesh chief minister dismissed the recent income tax raids on the properties of some of his aides as “politically motivated”. “It happened just before the elections here. People know why. I don’t have to explain,” he said. “I am not going to be cowed by it. In fact, one of those raided turned out to be a BJP fellow who said he was doing it (keeping money) for the BJP.”
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Why Shivraj Singh Chouhan tells lies about Prgya? If she is innocent, as he says, why did his govt arrest Pragya twice for her alleged involvement in Sunil Joshi’s murder in 2008 and 2011 ? Shivraj should explain how a terrorist and murder accused can protect and strengthen the nation,”