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In the battle for Bhopal, BJP is counting on the silence of Sadhvi Pragya

The Lok Sabha poll campaign for Bhopal, where BJP's Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is up against Digvijaya Singh of Congress, ends Friday evening.

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Bhopal: In the Madhya Pradesh capital, the transfer of power is being felt acutely.

Already this week, supporters of the state’s ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have clashed twice, once in Gunga on Bhopal’s outskirts, and another time in the heart of the city.

Both times, FIRs were allegedly lodged against the BJP workers, supposedly on the order of Jaivardhan Singh, state Urban Development and Housing minister and son of Bhopal Congress candidate and former chief minister Digvijaya Singh.

Only five months ago, such incidents would have been unheard of in a city painted saffron for the previous 15 years, and the BJP is clearly feeling the strain.

At the BJP’s campaign office, a forlorn place since the Election Commission (EC), on 1 May, banned BJP candidate Pragya Thakur from campaigning for 72 hours because of her remarks against the hero of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, then Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad chief Hemant Karkare, despondent party workers are discussing how to break up the day.

Pragya Thakur’s EC gag has been lifted, but the BJP continues to keep an eye out.
Only 72 hours remain between Bhopal and the electronic voting machine (the city votes 12 May), and every hour counts.

“We should write to the Election Commission to keep an eye on the distribution of liquor by the Congress,” one upset BJP worker says. “They just give chits to the liquor contractors who do the job.”

He is referring to the oldest political trick in the election campaign book, sometimes called “qayamat ki raat” or the “night of destiny”, when liquor is secretly distributed to voters a night or so before D-Day, allegedly in order to lure them to cast their vote in a particular candidate’s favour.

“I say, if the Congress slaps FIRs on our workers, then we should not be afraid, we should also protest to the police to slap FIRs on them,” says a second party worker.

Lekin, police toh hamaari nahin rahin (But police is no longer loyal to us),” answers a third party worker, mournfully.

The Hindutva card

Significantly, the shift in the balance of power was anticipated by none other than the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) when the BJP lost the December 2018 assembly election by a whisker, securing 109 seats against the Congress’ 114 in a house of 230 seats.

To win back the state would require the shifting of tectonic plates. Nothing less than a firebrand sadhvi would do.

Bhopal’s BJP mayor Alok Sharma fancied his chances, but he was given short shrift. Incumbent Bhopal MP Alok Sanjar wanted to return to the Lok Sabha, until he was summarily told that he should restrict his ambitions to being Pragya Thakur’s dummy candidate. Then the name of another full-time RSS worker, B.D. Sharma, was considered for Bhopal — he was, ultimately, shifted to Khajuraho.

Meanwhile, the candidacy of Digvijaya Singh, the Congress candidate against Pragya Thakur, was growing from strength to strength.

“To counter the ruling Congress party, which holds all the levers of power, and the strong position of Digvijaya Singh, the RSS decided to play its Hindutva card. That is why Pragya Thakur has been brought in,” a political analyst in Bhopal told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.

The BJP believed the Modi undercurrent plus the hardline Hindutva vote would force a religious polarisation in Bhopal and send the Sadhvi to Parliament.

But the BJP hadn’t reckoned for Pragya’s own statements on Hemant Karkare and her role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid. When the EC gag shut her down, the BJP decided that senior resources had to be pulled in to “manage” the Sadhvi.


Also read: Sadhvi Pragya’s doctor debunks claim of cow urine curing her cancer, says she had surgeries


Gagged

An informal gag order has since been placed on the sadhvi, this time by her own party, so she doesn’t say anything else that may damage her any further.

So, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman was flown in and has been meeting press as well as the BJP Mahila Morcha at the party office — the sadhvi isn’t allowed to go near the press.

BJP national vice-president and party chief Amit Shah’s confidant Vinay Sahasrabuddhe manages the frontlines. Former chief minister and a big Bhopal favourite, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, fondly called “mama” by the people of the city, is hopping from sabha to sabha late into the night as if this was his own election.

In the absence of a fulsome campaign, rumours are rife. On Thursday evening in Bhopal, around 24 hours before the campaign was set to end, when Pragya didn’t show up for a meeting in front of the Anand Nagar police station, it was said that “she wasn’t feeling like coming”.

Then, suddenly, she showed up. She spoke for a few minutes and, equally suddenly, was gone. Chouhan and local MLA Krishna Gaur were left behind to rev up the enthusiasm.

The Bhopal contest is turning out be a national cynosure. Apart from Pragya Thakur and Digvijaya Singh, there is the silent candidate Narendra Modi.

Diehard BJP supporters who cannot bear the thought that the sadhvi cursed the man who fought Pakistani terrorists know the PM is a safe pair of hands to fall back on.

For the rest, there’s Diggy Raja, or Digivijaya Singh.

In this ancient but beautiful city that is falling apart, the battle for Bhopal has been well and truly joined.


Also read: Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is a god-send — for Digvijaya Singh


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